


Moksha

by QueenPotatos



Category: Free!
Genre: Cyberpunk AU, M/M, fantastic / reincarnation AU, minor character death planned ahead, post dystopia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-05-03 12:42:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 58,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5291288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenPotatos/pseuds/QueenPotatos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tokyo, 23rd century. In a country witnessing the birth of cyborgs' technology, Haru met a gorgeous stranger in a bar. He found out soon that helped by a twist of fate, they ended up working together for the sake of the Japanese government, against a secret terrorist's group. His one and only mission : protect Moksha at all cost. What hid behind the mysterious name? Who pulled the strings behind the attempts of stealing Moksha from the CIRO?</p><p>And the question that haunted Haru the most : was Matsuoka Rin really a stranger to him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> MAJOR EDIT 20/02/16
> 
> The one shot had turned into a multi chapter fic!
> 
> The plot basically is the same, I just added world building and some details we'll need for the rest of the story. I think you should reread the prologue to fully appreciate the rest of the story.
> 
> Thanks to Frauggie and whitechoko who helped me with this.
> 
> Now let's go!

* * *

 

 

On a cold November night in the 23rd century Haru wandered through the Underground, looking for a drink when he usually avoided the ill-famed part of the town. The place was said to be the headquarters of Yakuza, with prostitutes lurking at every corner; the words on the streets was that there was at least one murder per hour in the depth on the night. Makoto would definitely kill him if he knew he wandered in such a place, which was why he would never be informed of his little nocturnal getaways. His eyes caught sight of a greenish flashing sign behind the fog that read ‘Irish Pub’. Since his legs were too tired to walk him any further, he decided to stop by.

The bar was crowded but by chance, Haru saw that there was still an empty seat at the counter from the corner of his eyes, next to a man dressed in a expensive black suit. The bartender acknowledged him with a silent nod while cleaning whiskey glasses and went to the other side of the counter. After he gave it a second look, Haru noticed that it was just a cheap cyborg with only one functioning eye and a shirt that was too big for its build. Haru wondered if anything, in this bar, belonged to their original owners.

The bartender busied himself with other customers – a middle aged man and his chick, who had wide white teeth stained with her red lipstick on the front and an irritating laugh - and left him alone next to the man wearing the black suit. It had captivated him from the start, and that was certainly why he had chosen this seat in particular. The suit was gorgeous, and far more expensive in comparison to what other customers were wearing, even in the furthest corners of the bar. Since it was properly tailored Haru highly doubted it was something his neighbour had stolen; he looked too neat to do anything illegal.

"Hey, what are you looking at?"

The man inside the suit scowled and glared at him rudely. Haru had rarely seen such an unpleasant attitude coming from such a pretty face; what a shame that was, really.

"The only thing that's worth looking at; where did you buy your suit?"

The man made an unamused face and stared at his drink again.

The bartender came back then with the most dreadful sense of timing; without speaking, he asked for Haru's order simply by raising his red eye and taking a glass in his hand. Haru looked for something nice to drink among the bottles to the cyborg's back, but nothing seemed to please him tonight.

"What are you drinking?" He asked then. No one answered. Haru spoke again.

"Hey, 'Nice suit', what’re you drinking?"

"It's Rin."

"Never heard of it."

"That's my name! Not 'nice suit' guy... and this is bourbon by the way."

Haru shrugged. "'Thought it was whiskey."

The man called Rin put his drink loudly on the counter and looked up to the ceiling. "It would take too long to explain."

"I'll have a bourbon." Haru said calmly, emphasizing the name, as his gaze drew back to the bartender.

He nodded again and returned a minute later with the best drink Haru ever had the chance to pay for. Unfortunately the bill belonged to the same class as Rin's suit; Haru choked in surprise. "Ha," the man chuckled, and drank a sip. “Bourbon is not for rookies like you."

Haru stared at him; he couldn't be any older than he was, so how dare he patronize him?

"Look, I'm sorry for being rude earlier," the man added. "Things are getting a little bit complicated at work and my social life is not as great as I thought it would be when I was young and naive."

"So this is why you spend your night in a shabby place like this, dressed like the Prime Minister and drinking atrociously expensive whiskey. It's not worth the price by the way."

"You seem to know a lot about everything's worth; I wonder what you do for a living. Could you perhaps work in a bank, or for the government?" The man teased.

"I'm an artist." Haru said. "I paint, to be more precise."

"Oh, that's nice." The man suddenly wore a look of candid surprise, put his drink on the counter and turned to Haru for the first time this night. "Do you still use old techniques like gouache and watercolours?"

"I do," Haru replied, quite perplexed with the stranger’s knowledge of art. Nowadays there wasn’t a single kid who knew what real paint used to be.

 

They actually managed, thanks to the bourbon Haru guessed, to have a sort of conversation, and before they knew it the bar was closing down.

"Put it on my tab," Rin offered as Haru was counting every penny he had in his wallet, "It's a way to pay you back for being a jerk earlier."

"You don't have to," Haru replied with his hand still on his wallet, "You were not a jerk."

Rin sighed. "I know, but you're being an ass. Just drop it, I'm trying to be nice and I'm afraid I'm too tired to have enough patience to stay this nice for more than 5 more minutes."

Truth was, Haru wasn't looking for money; he was merely buying time. Time that he needed to compose himself and to find the perfect line for Rin to stay with him tonight. At first it had just been the suit, but that was far from being the only thing that outclassed and shone in this lugubrious bar. Rin was as gorgeous as anyone could dream a one night partner could be. Not to mention the way he smiled kind of knocked the wind out of him, more than once, or was it the alcohol?

When they were about to part he let his guts speak for him. It was like he physically couldn't bear to say goodbye so soon.

"Let me paint you."

"What?"

Rin halted. "It's to pay you back for being an ass. I could do your portrait, with watercolours if you insist."

To his great astonishment, Rin seemed to consider his demand. "Well, why not?" He said then, his mouth curled into a smile but it was tented with trace of uneasiness, something Haru liked a lot.

"Great. Where's your place?"

"What you mean, right-, right now?"

"Why not?"

"But you don't have any supplies! And I don't have any at my place, I'm just not that much of an artist."

"You have no idea how talented I can be with my bare hands."

Haru's mind fuzzed for being reckless but he didn't care. He needed it. He needed the thrill, he needed to feel Rin's muscles under the palms of his hands, and he wanted it to be very clear. His body moved on its own and with a step forward he stopped just a breath away from Rin's chest. They were about the same height, and their noses were so close to touching. Haru caught Rin holding his breath, but he knew he had already won. His pupils were dark and dilated.

"Then," Rin said, his voice hoarse, "we should probably take an elevator."

They went to Rin's place in a silence so sharp and heavy that it cut through their burning skin. Haru felt trapped in a maze or a carousel; his head started spinning the more they hurried in the narrow streets. Rin was an attractive man, that was certain; it was maybe the most certain thing on earth for Haru at this very moment, but he never thought it would affect him so much. Blindly following him felt like a swam dive and it was so thrilling, Haru wanted more of it, more of this stranger he barely knew - almost to the point where he had forgotten why he had gone into that bar in the first place.

Rin owned a flat on the 125th floor near downtown. His place was big and luxurious, there was a lot of heavy and even pompous furniture, it didn't feel like Rin chose it all for some strange reason - as if Haru could know what kind of man he was. Haru's feet propelled him directly to the bedroom and to its large windows, missing the red spot following each of his steps. The lights coming from the streets through Rin's windows were fascinating. It was almost 3 AM - 2:47AM to be precise everything seemed so peaceful outside.

Rin had taken off his coat and was now sitting in front of his computer. Haru frowned and found it extremely rude for at least a dozen of reasons, but Rin was frowning as well and looked worried so he diddn't dare to whine about it.

"What's going on?" Haru asked instead.

"Work. Do you want something else to drink? Or maybe coffee?"

Haru politely declined. There had been one thing Haru had never been able to pry out of Rin: his work. It was Rin's most well kept secret, he even told him at some point that it was his own Pandora’s box, and that one day he'd opened it to the wrong person and that chaos had ruined the world they knew. When Haru rightly mentioned that there would be hope in the end Rin's mouth laughed, but his eyes didn't.

The computer was in a tiny room Haru suspected to be Rin’s office. It was just next to the bedroom, and with the door open it overlooked the bed. Haru stood at a safe distance from Rin, watching him, studying him, typing, working, noting every inch of his muscles contracting due to the stress. What could he do for a living? He couldn't be some important bureaucrat, because if he was he wouldn't be built like that. Now that the suit jacket wasn't obscuring the view anymore, Haru could finally see what lay under the surface. His trapezes looked absolutely delicious.

In his daze, Haru leaned on the doorframe. "I'm almost done," Rin told him, "It's probably nothing, I can take care of this when you leave."

"Do you really want me out so quickly?"

"That's not what I-"

Rin was silenced by Haru's hungry mouth eating his lips. He tried to resist at first because Haru had taken him by surprise, but Rin soon welcomed Haru's tongue inside as he felt Haru’s firm hands on his face. His steady hold was showing just how desperate Haru was, and how much he wanted it. It amazed even Haru himself how he could be so taken by someone he had just met. God, he tasted so good, kissing him felt so good. It ached so much just to touch him.

There was something wrong. Something they didn't know yet, something important Haru was missing in this whole picture. It was never supposed to happen like this.

Rin was the one who broke the kiss. Panting and out of breath, Haru glanced at him only to find Rin was staring back with the same puzzled expression in his eyes as Haru felt on his own face. He was about to speak but it seemed Rin couldn't find the words he needed to say, even though he had them right there on the tip of his tongue.

That was the perfect opportunity to knock him out. But Haru couldn't do it.

Instead, he kissed Rin with a sudden burst of tenderness, and their next kisses were gentle and soft. It lasted until Haru felt his insides twist so much he wanted to throw up. That was when his senses came back to him, or at least some of them. They were supposed to have sex, not make love; why were they being so sentimental all of a sudden? Haru needed some action to occupy his mind from those disturbing thoughts. He stood up and removed Rin's shirt, and his own flew over his head just as quickly. This strategy worked wonders, there were no more soft touches from then on, just their bodies crashing into each other. Haru finally sat on Rin's thighs and crushed their lips together. Rin's hands settled on the small of his back and crawled even lower, finding their way under Haru's pants. He felt those hands grasp his ass as his mouth licked up Haru's throat, just below his Adam's apple. When pointy teeth brushed past his pulse, Haru shuddered. It didn't look like him at all to react that much and he blamed it on the alcohol, forgetting about a muffled voice that whispered in his ear that it couldn’t be that simple. Rin lifted him from his lap and brought them to his bedroom.

They both collapsed on the bed. Haru let himself be loved, let Rin do everything he wanted to him; and gave himself to that stranger without a second thought, without any regrets. Rin was a fantastic lover, always touching in the right places, always kissing with the perfect angle and force, every single one of his thrusts sending him to heaven even as he penetrated him again and again, until bliss stole the consciousness of them both. It was like living on a cloud. Haru's mind, for a couple of minutes, stayed blank, pure, perhaps even happy when Haru couldn't remember what happiness felt like anymore. Rin was warm and still on top of him. His breathing was slowing down, and figuring he must have fallen asleep, Haru let out a deep sigh. He knew he had fucked up the moment he found himself caressing Rin's neck, where the tip of his hair reached the skin there.

There was never supposed to be any kind of affection between the predator and his victims. Haru needed to get a grip. After all, no matter how attracted to Rin he felt, no matter how insane it sounded, there was a reason for his presence here.

The Sakura Mission.

Soundlessly, Haru eased out of bed and stole through the room to sit in front of his ultimate goal – Rin’s computer. The organisation he worked for needed some confidential information contained within a hidden file named ‘Sakura’. It was the only thing Haru needed to know, and the only thing he was told. He had seen the password to the welcome screen from the corner of his eye earlier though it would have taken him less than a minute to guess since it was something as stupid as ‘ILOVESWIMMING1002’. On the desktop background was a nice picture of a young Gou, Rin's little sister, at the beach building a sandcastle. Haru entered his USB key and then let his hacking skills do the job. Soon Haru founded what he was looking for; a list of files with cryptic names. The file wasn’t that complicated to find, a simple algorithm revealed the true meaning behind all of the symbols - all were flowers' name. It was almost too simple. Haru gave a small smile in triumph to himself; did they really think that he was an amateur?

Of course, the file 'Sakura' needed another password to be opened or copied, but it shouldn’t take long with his powerful algorithm. After a couple of tries and 15 good minutes of hard work however, the file remained unopened.

"Shit," Haru whispered.

That was enough to wake up Rin it seemed, and Haru’s blood froze in his veins when he heard him talk.

"You know… from the moment I met you, I felt that there was something off with you", he mumbled quietly.

Haru couldn’t move a muscle. How could he have made such a stupid mistake?

"I felt... like I knew you before. Like we were old friends from the past. But I was so sure it was the first time meeting you. It’s so strange. It’s not just your face. It's everything about you."

Haru let out a sigh but didn’t completely relax just yet. What Rin seemed to describe was suspiciously akin to what he experienced himself.

"It’s in the way you talk, the way your shoulders get down when you’re bored, the way your eyes sparkle when you talk about something you love, the way you kiss me when you want more, the way…"

Haru eagerly waited for what was coming next with something warm growing inside his chest, but his efforts were in vain since Rin stayed quiet, most likely having fallen back asleep. For a minute or two Haru waited with bated breath just to make sure Rin wouldn’t wake up again. Maybe he had talked in his sleep, Rin often did that when he was younger.

His eyes rested on the screen, fell on Rin’s sister's face and her red eyes. When did he mention her by the way? Was it after the third glass of bourbon or was it before? Haru couldn’t remember. It came like a flash then, the password. It appeared clearly, obviously, and it made perfect sense. It fit with who Rin truly was.

Haru glanced one last time over to his sleeping face. He was really gorgeous, so much so it coloured Haru’s cheeks. He could still feel Rin’s hot breathe on his skin. Somehow, he knew already just how much he would miss him. And yet without any second thought, he typed the letters on the keyboard.

 

‘IswimBestFree!ForTheTeam1220’

 

 

***

 

 

"I can’t believe I just let it happen!" Rin said, when he saw on the international news that the confidential information from CIRO had been stolen. "It’s all my fault. How could I have been so stupid?"

"Because the guy was gorgeous?" Sousuke proposed.

"He was so fucking gorgeous, you should have seen him! God I feel like I was on drugs or something."

"You know, maybe he actually drugged you. Considering what he was after." Sousuke brought him a cup of coffee. "I won’t tell anyone." He said softly.

Rin looked awfully tired, and it made him appear as if he were ten years older. Something was bothering him; there was absolutely no doubt about that.

"If you weren’t my boss I would be fired on the spot."

"Don’t worry about it." Sousuke comforted him. "From what I’ve gathered so far, the guy is a genius."

"He’s good at acting. I was so damn sure he was after my dick."

Sousuke laughed and patted Rin’s shoulder. "You seem more upset about your sexual misadventure than about your work."

"Shut up! You know how important my job is to me! We’ve dreamed about being secret agents whilst watching all those James Bond movies together, remember?"

"Oh you remember it too, my dear Moneypenny?"

"Sousuke, you’re a double zero." Rin pestered.

"Don’t be a dick. You’re still a young agent, of course you’ll make mistakes. It’s not that big a deal."

"Yeah, I know…"

Rin's gaze was lost on his steaming cup of the new black gold. His face was showing traces of nostalgia that belonged to him alone, something Sousuke never really understood. "Then what’s bothering you?" Sousuke asked his oldest friend.

Rin ended his cup and put it on Sousuke’s desk. "You told me that Haru entered the password manually? That he didn’t crack it?"

"That’s what the experts said."

Rin’s frown deepened. "Then how did he know about Gou? What her birthday was?" Rin told him. "I never mentioned her during our night. I’m absolutely certain about that."

"This is a mystery that will stay unresolved until we find our guy." Sousuke said wisely.

He took Rin’s cup from him and tossed it in the sink. "You shouldn’t think too much about it. Take a few days, go back to beach, swim a little."

"Before making any important decisions, I need to eat. Lunch?"

"Not this time, I have an appointment; but I’ll catch you later."

Rin didn’t reply. He was too lost in his thoughts, too lost in his memories of the wonderful night he had spent in the stranger’s arms.

 

 

Alone on a narrow street that reeked of piss in the Underground once more, Haru waited for his appointment. The Sakura file was well kept on his USB key, and his payment was due to arrive any time soon. They were supposed to meet in the upper city but Haru refused, arguing that he would feel more comfortable in a familiar place – a place devoid of cops at any given time.

A couple of minutes later a man appeared out of nowhere, or rather with incredible discretion considering how tall and well built he was. His teal and cerulean tinted eyes scanned the street, making sure that no one had followed him.

"Well done," the man said, and handed him an envelope.

"This is what we agreed on. There’s also a bonus."

"Why?" Haru asked, suspicious.

"It’s not money. When you read it, think about it, and call me when you make your decision. We’ll wait."

 

Sousuke then turned on his heel without waiting for an answer. After all, he had very little doubt about what the future would hold.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can follow me on my blog! (Url doctor-queenie)  
> I'll add some details about characters description such as age and function, and also a chapter playlist to make the experience better. You won't have to listen to it of course. It's just my personnal taste ans how I felt when I wrote some passage. It's a way to share emotion like writing and I think it's great to use both methods.
> 
> I hope you liked it and that you're thrilled for the rest! All is to come.


	2. Chapter one : The newcomer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tokyo, 23rd century, in CIRO secret office. The Sharks have just succeeded their latest mission and brought back a very special prisoner. But to make it talk, the Japanese super secret service will need the help of the best hacker of the country.  
> Meanwhile, Haru finally accepts to meet Yamazaki in the CIRO office...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone !  
> I've refreshed this old one shot a bit (actually quite a lot) to make a multichapter fic. I highly suggest that you read the prologue again if it's not already done. This is now a post dystopia futurist fic mixed with a reincarnation AU.
> 
> Every chapter will start with some definiton of terms I used or create in the fic, some characters description since they will be a lot, and a playlist you can use while listening. I was either inspired by those or thought they fit the story well. You don't have to use them of course it's just a bonus.
> 
> Have a nice read :)

 

 

Glossary :

**CIRO :** The Japanese intelligence service. Stands for  Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office.

 **The Sharks :** A mysterious and secret armed group linked to CIRO and the Japanese government.

 **The Nest :** Tokyo centre; hundreds of skyscrapers all linked with bridge instead of roads. High above the head of the people living on earth.

 **The Underground** : Part of Tokyo centre which is still on earth.

 

Starting with :

**Aki Yazaki (19)** : Newest member of the the Sharks. Skilled soldier.

 **Alpha 08 (?)** : a female cyborg at the cutting edge of the technology.

 **Yamazaki Sousuke (32):** Chief of the cyberpolice at the CIRO.

 **Haruka Nanase (22)** : A young hacker; said to be a genius in this field. Had been spot by Yamazaki Sousuke.

 

==> [Chapter Playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLop3Dm7-fjPVM7E6ryhg1iWzR1GtfL_QE) <==

 

* * *

 

##  Chapter One : The Newcomer

 

 

 

The rain echoed with a metallic sound as it poured down on the old auditorium. The place built in the 21st century was completely abandoned since the innovation of the newest technology and virtual reality. The only sound that could be heard was the whoosh of human breathing, short and harsh, indicating how breathless they were. A dozen of mercenaries waited close together in a long corridor before a closed door. The most stressed in the group were fidgeting, checking the infrared vision on their helmets and the batteries on their laser guns for the fifth time, out of fear it might malfunction when they need it the most.

"Remain still and wait for orders." A female voice commanded in their helmets.

The mercenaries obeyed. The assault had been planned for months, nothing was left to speculate; even the weather had been taken into account, the rain would make it harder for their target to escape. Their goal lay behind that red door which lead to the main stage of the auditorium. There was no room for failure this time.

"Get ready, it's time." the female leader ordered from her base.

Lined up along the corridor, the mercenaries each put their hands on the shoulders of those before them.

"Switch to invisible mode."

Some that were rookies gulped loudly before their leader hushed them again. The operation wasn't going to be painless, but not one of them let out a cry or even the slightest whimper. It was essential that their presence remained unknown to their enemies. A single one of _them_ could easily slaughter an army of regular humans after all.

The group moved forward a single step at a time, towards the red door. Thunder rolled. Rain crashed harder against the windows. Suddenly, the whole group froze until the first in line lowered their gun.

"Alpha 08, what's happening?" the leader asked. "Why did you stop?"

"Someone's playing music," one of the rookies answered first.

"It's a piano piece," Alpha 08 stated but quickly added to it. "My data core is looking for the name of that song but I can't find it."

"Alpha 08 you're a cyborg, not a music lover. Get back to the mission."

"But leader, if I can't find it in my data base then it means the song does not exist."

"That is not relevant to the mission," the leader threatened. "Find Moksha and bring it back. That's the mission."

"But it's pretty, leader. I want to know what piece it is."

Bewitched by the sound of the piano, the cyborg slowly stepped forward, unarmed, and the rest of the group followed pushed by their ill curiosity. They opening the red door in front of them with a creak.

The main stage itself was covered in dust. In the centre stood a grand piano, alone, without a player. However the black and white keys continuously struck the notes as if by magic.

"Fire!" the leader shouted.

Just before they pulled the trigger, the piano stool fell on the floor, making the dust scatter. Blue rays of light hit their target and the piano was destroyed, but the music kept playing. On top of the piano were the added sounds of a drum and a singing voice.

"It's a song!" One of the mercenaries realized.

"It's still not in the data base. I can't find the recording." Alpha 08 said.

The cyborg scanned the area and stepped down the aisle of the bleachers; there was no one in sight. No Moksha, no pianist, no computer with which to play such music.

"Leader, permission asked to deactivate invisible mode in order to use infra-red."

"Permission given, but be careful; all the sensors indicate that you're not alone."

When Alpha 08 stepped onto the wooden floor of the main stage it cancelled the invisible armour, revealing a feminine form. The infrared vision showed that their leader was right indeed; there was someone on the stage, someone just in front of it.

"Tar-"

The opponent fired and Alpha 08 was sliced in two by a red laser.

The group of mercenaries responded by shooting at where Alpha 08 killer should be. Under the smoke of their shots they saw a shadow moving, and jumping on the ceiling.

The leader watched the battle, powerless behind her screen, and this humiliation made her furious. "Stop shooting!" She ordered.

They waited for the smoke to disappear, yet there was still no one in sight.

"Scatter about the room. Concentrate on sounds to spot the target."

The troop of mercenaries occupied the entirety of the auditorium, but with the rain and the song playing loudly it was almost impossible to hear the thump of a foot hitting the floor, the swish of a body moving, or the beat of a human heart. What bad luck, losing their only cyborg so early on. Immobile, trying not to breath too loud, they held their laser guns fearing they wouldn't see or hear anything that could betray the location of their enemy. One of the rookies shot by accident; hopefully none of his allies were harmed by his clumsiness. "Sorry," he thought, and his voice was transferred to the other thanks to their helmets. His actions only raised the tension in the room.

Without any kind of warning one of them fell onto the ground.

And then, before the others had time to spin around, a second followed.

"What's happening!?" The mercenaries asked in panic.

"It's moving." The leader said, analysing her screens. "It's moving extremely fast from the ceiling to the ground. Watch yourselves."

One of the rookies aimed his laser gun to the ceiling and fired. Dust fell to the floor as well as some of the metallic support beams, knocking out one of his companions.

"Fool!" The female voice yelled into his helmet. "What have you done?"

"Sorry leader."

His voice was quivering in fear. The mission was a disaster; there were so many things they weren't ready for: the music, the lost of their Alpha, the invisible combination, and on top of that Moksha was no where to be seen. Instead, they had stumbled upon a very well trained assassin they couldn't see but who seemed to be able to see them despite their invisible armours. More mercenaries fell in muffled cries. Blood drenched the main stage's floor. The only rookie that remained counted : there were 6 corpses on the ground, meaning there were only 7 of them still alive.

Then the music stopped. Relived at first, the youngling thought it would only make their job easier to catch the killer. But on the contrary, it left the whole place in a dreadful silence, so heavy and thick it was enough to shove any experienced soldier to the ground because all they could think about now was, who was going to go next?

It didn't help that the last rookie felt watched.

He felt the breath of his assailant before it sliced his throat and let him dead. It saw him. It saw through the invisible armour.

The rookie died with the bitter taste of his own blood in his mouth.

"Shit!"

The leader was fuming. Secured in her base far from the operation localisation, she couldn't do anything but witness the slaughter, helpless to keep her troops from being struck down by an invisible enemy. And Moksha didn't even seem to be here, so their information was false, on top of that.

She switched off the infra red in her own vision and the realization of how the assassin could kill all of her men so easily hit her.

"Dust!" she yelled. "You're all covered with dust! That's why it can see you!"

As she spoke, another of her men fell with a red laser shot. The ones that remained fired into his corpse so the dust and blood would spray up and stick to the assassin's legs.

"It's here! Fire!" he shouted.

Following the running legs covered in blood, the five mercenaries shot at their target until it disappeared behind the velvet curtain leading backstage. One of them aimed a shot where he thought he saw movement, and the assassin finally was hit.

The woman assassin let out a cry and her invisible armour fell. Everyone remained still, waiting for her to move.

 

 

Behind the curtain, Aki Yazaki panted. Her shoulder was hurt but it didn’t matter, she would seek her job to the end until reinforcement arrived. The Japanese government needed to know who this new threat was expeditiously ; this was the perfect opportunity to shine, and bring honour and pride to her unit and her family.

"You're fools to think it will save you." She announced to the lot of them.

Running out of her hiding place, even as laser shots were aimed at her, she dodged every single one of them. Her movements were fluid and graceful, and she looked like a dancer to one of the mercenaries, before she sliced his throat with her knuckle blade. He was wrong about her though, because she was not a dancer.

She was a shark.

Embroidered on the back of her black leather jacket was a menacing red shark, baring its fangs.

"...Sh-sh-sh-"

"Sharks!"

"Sharks?" The leader repeated pensively.

The mercenaries ran after hearing that, leaving their guns on the floor. They ran back to the red door and down the corridor they had occupied for so long. As they escaped, the windows on their side shattered. Four people, all wearing black glasses and leather jackets burst into their path, and rolled just in front of the deserters. They were all wearing matching jackets with sharks on their backs like the one the other woman had.

"Sorry, not this time I'm afraid."

The first man disassembled his bionic hand and fired with the gun hidden there. Two mercenaries went down.

"Be careful, lieutenant" the woman to the left of the shooter said. "We need one for the interrogation."

"Well that means we can still get rid of all but one. These _bugs_ are better dead than alive."

The man who shot earlier took a knife from his under his sleeve. He slowly walked towards a new target. "Sweet dreams."

The death was quick and painless. The man wiped the blood from his blade with a tissue. "You can knock the last one out and we’re good. I’ll report to Yamazaki."

The other two with them went to the main stage as the woman paused, waiting for her teammate before leaving the corridor. She knelt in front of the last remaining enemy and took his pulse. "That one is dead too," she told him, raising her voice so that he could hear her. "Must have had a heart attack after seeing the design on your back. I’m going to check on Aki; I’ll meet you at the HQ."

"As you wish, Major."

Behind the red door, the scene that unfolded was chaotic. The roof had crumbled in and everything had been reduced to dust by laser shots. The Major was glad to hear that her newest agent Aki was alright, seeing as how only her shoulder took a hit in the fight.

"You did so well," the older woman praised, "I’m glad you’re all right."

Aki was still panting, but somehow found the breath to respond. "Thank you Major Tanaka. I hope Sousuke will be satisfied this time. Did we take any prisoners?"

"I’m afraid not. But at least now we know where the leak does not come from. It’s nice to know who you can trust and who you shouldn’t."

"What if it’s still one of us and the mole decided to remain silent to cover his arse?"

"That’s still a possibility," Major Tanaka said as she walked to the cyborg that still remained. "But I highly doubt our enemy would have waste so much money on this operation if they already knew Moksha wasn’t here. You didn’t damage the brain by the way, that's quite an achievement."

"I hate killing cyborgs." Aki confessed bitterly.

"More than killing humans?"

"Humans are evil." Aki said, "Cyborgs are programmed by humans; it’s the evil maker we should assassinate, not the tools. She never asked to be a killer."

Her boss chuckled in response. "You talk about cyborgs as if they have a soul."

"She loved your song."

The Major let out a tender sigh, then smiled at her apprentice. "You’re still so young, Aki. Anyway, if its data logs are not damaged we could likely find who your evil human is, if Yamazaki is clever enough to find a damn good hacker the government hasn't poached yet."

"She had invisible armour," Aki said, which made the whole group of Sharks turn around in surprise. "In that case, I think that whoever made it won’t be very easy to find."

Aki saw her boss silently contemplating the new piece of information she’d learned. Inside her head, every piece of the current problem were like a giant puzzle she assembled until a solution was found. "Good," she finally said, which confused Aki a bit, "that will make the search far easier."

A couple of minutes later, cleanup crew had cleaned the entire place and the corpses were disposed of.

"This one just is just knocked out, Major."

A soldier knelt and took the damaged helmet off of the mercenary as the Major stood just behind. "He’s so young." She bent down and caressed strips of greyish hair mixed with dried blood. "Take him to the infirmary, we'll interrogate him once he has recovered. He looks like a rookie but any information is worth the effort."

They only headed back to the HQ after another look around to be sure no traces of their presence had been left. All the cameras had been destroyed and the cleaners had washed and removed all the DNA traces behind them. Aki was waiting for her boss in front of the red door; when she came into view again Major Tanaka was holding a black disc into her hand.

"It's an old form of a music repository for the 20th century," Major told her. "It was called a vinyl record at the time. Men and women in the early 21st got suddenly fond of this old stuff - the quality was said to be better than non material music, can you imagine?"

"What was the name of the song, by the way?" Aki asked as they boarded the helicopter.

"It's called Space Dementia, from a rock band called MUSE." Major Takana said. "It's from their album named Origin of Symmetry."

Major Tanaka threw it in the air, and Aki had no other choice but to catch it before it landed on the floor.

 

 

Back in the dorms after the nurse had healed her wounds, Aki rested on her bed. She couldn't shake the image of the cyborg she had fought. Her name was Alpha 08, and she wasn't like any other cyborg she had met before.

Since she couldn't sleep at all, she made her way back to the base where Alpha 08 was being kept. Nagisa was already working on her, and to the young lady's great surprise considering the late hour, Sousuke was there as well.

"Hello," she said softly, "How come you're still here?"

"I heard you were injured. I wanted to make sure everything was alright."

"I'm not a kid anymore, I can take care of myself."

She barked but to everyone in the Sharks, it was widely known that the new recruit and their former Captain deeply cared for one another. They were born in the same village after all, when she was young and Sousuke was in high school; he had often taken care of her back then, when her mother needed to work extra hours.

Nagisa smiled and put the tools he was tinkering with down. "I think it's time for everyone to go to sleep. I won't be able to find anything new tonight anyway."

"I thought you ran on battery power, what happened while I was away? Did you forget to recharge?" Aki joked.

"I'm afraid my brain needs a rest! I can't concentrate, and those circuits are really complicated. I don't know who made it but this cyborg was worth ten million pounds at least."

"Do you think you could get the core out in time?" Sousuke asked.

His eyebrows were arched, and Aki understood immediately it was an urgent matter. Whoever tried to find Moksha again, they were getting closer and closer, and each of their attempts became more dangerous. The situation was critical indeed.

Nagisa nodded eventually. "I'll be alright; I'd rather ask if you think you will find someone talented enough to decode it in time. Will you?"

Sousuke smiled, which was so rare that it could only mean something astonishingly good - or announce a tragedy. "I think I already did," he said.

Aki stared at him, amazed, wondering just who that genius could be.

 

 

[***]

 

 

Haru yawned loudly as the elevator’s door opened to a unknown world to him: a world of honest and hard work. People brushed by his shoulder as they passed by him in a hurry, their eyes stuck to the screen of their virtual reality goggles. Haru rubbed his eyes and blinked; the sun's rays were burning since he very rarely left solid ground in the daylight. Most of the population still lived below what society had chosen to call 'The Nest': a hundred or so buildings whose peaks couldn't be seen from the ground, all linked by bridges made from glass and steel.

"Excuse me sir, you seem lost."

There was a rolling cyborg next to him, its screen indicated a map of the surrounding area.

"Oh, thanks." Haru mumbled.

The little robot put up a smile on its screen. It looked, to Haru’s eyes, more human than the ones he had shared the elevator with.

The appointment was set in the main CIRO building in the very centre of the Nest. There, Haru was supposed to meet with his contact, Yamazaki, to discuss his future. Never he would have thought that after all his years of hacking the government's programs he was about to work for them. What a nice twist of fate.

Haru didn't care. He didn't have any political conviction; he just wanted to do whatever he wanted to, freely, without crossing any line, which it seemed he had done during the previous few days.

That man, Yamazaki, he had tricked him. He never said he worked for the government, he just handed over cash and a promise of more. Haru didn't think twice when he saw the amount of money promised to him, but he should have known better than to trust such a generous offer. The situation appeared to be quite simple: the meeting was supposedly a straightforward job interview between the head of the cyber police of CIRO and a hacker tracked by Interpol since the beginning of the year. However, the minute Haru refused the offer, four men would take him down and he would end his days in jail. For the first time in his life, Haru felt trapped; in fact he was completely trapped. The hunter had been more clever than him, and he hated it.

That's why, as he knew he was walking straight into his inescapable demise, he chose to make absolutely no effort in the way he looked or smelled. To hell with interview etiquette; he cared too much about life to sacrifice his future for some principle he believed in, but Haru wanted to show that even if he was being forced to accept, controlling him was an other story entirely.

The CIRO building entrance was identical to the other government offices he had seen so far. The walls were made of thousands of screens mirroring the view from outside as if they were windows. It looked sunny, but it felt cold.

He sighed as his steps brought him to yet another elevator. He stepped in, punched the 214 button, and leaned against the wall.

When the doors opened again, Yamazaki was there.

"Oh, hello." He said.

Haru uncrossed his arms but hardly had the chance to do anything else. The tall man in front of him stuck a needle in his neck and he collapsed on the floor.

 

 

He woke up with a start to the strong smell of coffee. His back was comfortably secured in a round leather seat, and in front of him there was a coffee table and what he guessed was Yamazaki's desk. The man himself was facing the view, showing his back to Haru. To his left there was an imposant bookcase that looked out of place – its Victorian style didn’t match with the rest of the office. Yamazaki looked thoughtful and old; judging by the small lines under his eyes, he might be, actually.

"Did you have a nice nap?" He asked.

Haru didn't reply; instead his tired eyes overlooked the room he had been brought in. 'Yamazaki Sousuke, Head of the Cyber Police Section' was written on the nameplate and was positioned exactly in the middle of the desk. There was also a fake plant on the corner of the room, which smelt like the plastic it was made of.

"Sleepy head, I guess." Yamazaki added.

Haru sent him a death glare but his limbs were too numb to move just yet - and yet his middle finger was very itchy.

"You will understand easily, I have no doubt about it, that because of the kind of project we're working on we had to take some precautions before bringing you here."

"Is this the new government's number one excuse to drug people legally?"

"Exactly."

His boldness broke Haru's composure. Yamazaki Sousuke sat in front of Haru, his eyes daring. He was a man in his mid thirties, Haru noticed, now that he was paying attention. "I've studied your history. I know lying to you won't work."

Haru tried to cross his leg to give himself some pretence, but it failed miserably thanks to the anaesthetic.

"You're smart, and the best in your specialty." Yamazaki went on, ignoring Haru's further attempts to move and not commenting any of them - which was, in fact, quite welcomed. "You've passed all our tests, faster than every of our best hackers and-"

"What will happen to me if I refuse to work for you?" Haru interrupted.

His future boss stopped for a long while, looking hard at him, studying him, and Haru made a heroic effort to not allow anything to show on his face.

"You'll be imprisoned of course, but I'm guessing you already know that." Yamazaki started, "What you do not know yet is that we will search your house, your friends' house, and your parents' house. We could treat you like the cyber terrorist you are, and use violence against your loved ones to get the information we're looking for like, for example, the next bank attack you're planning."

"I'm not planning any-"

"It'll be your word against mine. Look at you, look at your history; who do you think the court will trust more?"

The poisonous words paralyzed Haru harder than any drug could. The thought of having Makoto and his family threatened because of him sickened him. Yamazaki left him no choice, and he hated him from the bottom of his gut.

"Do I have your full attention now?"

Indeed, he did. Haru nodded.

"So, Nanase; do you know what _'Moksha'_ is?" Yamazaki asked him.

"It was a river in ancient Russia."

Yamazaki raised his eyebrow as if he was impressed, but Haru didn't buy it for a second.

"Good, good. Follow me."

Another injection and a roller-coaster of unpleasant sensations later, Haru was miraculously walking in the white, narrow corridors of the CIRO. On his right was a giant dark room with a single computer that had a screen occupying the entirety of a wall. Four or five employees were tapping on their keyboards and speaking loudly. On his left, bathed in light coming though the glass, twenty or so other people were working in a plain office setting. As Haru hastily followed Yamazaki to the other end of the corridor, a flash of red burned in the corner of his eye. His feet stopped, and he didn't know why.

His eyes couldn't find what he was looking for though, so he gazed at the clouds outside instead.

"This way."

Haru's attention snapped back, and he followed Yamazaki and his impressive back behind another door, feeling every set of eyes in the room following him, burning into the back of his head.

What a strange place this was.

They arrived to what Haru could only describe as the HQ. Every person in the room was wearing the same navy blue uniform and gazed up at where their boss appeared with a newcomer, welcoming them both with a synchronized 'Hi Chief', and went back to work without questioning what was going on. Good little soldiers, Haru thought. He wanted to run away already.

A woman with blond hair held in a high ponytail and a green headband came up to them. "Hi chief," she said, and huffed.

"At ease Hazuki. This is the person I've been talking about." Yamazaki explained, showing Haru, who also huffed in reflex.

"Fine. Let me take him." She said, and took Haru's arm in her hand.

"Not yet, first we need to talk about the mission. I'll be using the salon."

The Hazuki soldier nodded and released Haru, who sighed in relief - the woman had extraordinary strength for her age.

"When we're finished, could you call Miss Amakata for me?"

The request appeared awkward, even for the soldier but she nodded once more and left them alone.

Haru's journey ended in a room clearly used for meetings, supplied with a long white table and seats in front of which there were highly advanced technology headpieces with screens and microphones included. Haru ogled such an innovation, and Yamazaki let him, amused by his inherent gullibility.

"Take a seat," he instructed, and Haru obeyed bemusedly, forgetting his hatred of the man for a second and showing the candid surprise he felt.

"This is your contract."

Yamazaki handed him a piece of paper and a pen and Haru frowned. "Are we back in the 18th century? Why are you using an ink signature when you can use my eye or fingerprint?"

"Nanasa Haruka, may I conclude that you have forgotten how to use a mere pencil?" Yamazaki provoked him.

Haru had never signed a document so quickly in his life.

"Fine, you have agreed to give your life to the Japanese government, and to the CIRO in particular, to help us fight against modern terrorism at the cost of your life. This was all written on the document I gave you but since you didn't take the time to read it I thought it was polite to inform you about the exact terms of your freedom and safety."

Haru hardened his gaze on his official new chief and crossed his arms over his chest. "Can we get to the part where I learn something interesting?"

Yamazaki's features appeared more at ease than a few minutes prior. He sat in front of Haru and grasped the headpiece directly in front of him. "Put the cyber helmet on. It will allow us to communicate faster through telepathy and mental imagery. Have you already used something like this before?"

By the way Haru was holding it - upside down - Yamazaki guessed the answer was negative.

"It will hurt a bit when the wires connect with your brain but it won't last long. Ready?"

Too curious and too pissed to pay any attention of his chief's warnings, Haru hastily covered his head with the helmet and groaned in pain when it activated. He felt blood rushing in his eyes-

"Don't open your eyes yet. Get used to it."

Haru was stubborn but not a fool; for once he chose to listen to the voice inside in head. He knew somehow that even if it was Yamazaki's, the voice didn't come from his mouth, but instead spoke directly in his mind.

Even without opening his eyelids Haru could see the logo of CIRO.

"I see you're already familiar with mental imaging. Good. Let's get into the real deal."

In the matter of a couple of minutes or so Haru realized then, by listening to Yamazaki's words, that the past months of his life had been entirely orchestrated by CIRO in order to recruit him for a special mission. His last few jobs had all been commissioned by the government's insistence in order to evaluate his capabilities, and they selected him.

"CIRO has been facing a new threat in the past few years," Yamazaki went on, "I can't tell you all the details right now but a group of terrorists have been very active within our territory. Lately one of our best engineers was killed and his work stolen. He worked in our cybernetics field, in the conception of a neural system for cyborgs and mechanical prosthetics. When he was assassinated he was working on a new project which is confidential, of course, and we're afraid his data had been stolen by this group. Very recently we've arrested some of these terrorists after they fell into our trap. It appeared they had used our own technology to attack us, the one that was stolen after the engineer's death. We have also noticed that the enemy knows our strength and weakness more than we could imagine; making us think that perhaps there is, or are, traitors among us."

"What do I have to do with this?" Haru asked after listening very carefully.

The image of a female cyborg came into his view.

"This is your work. Let me introduce you to the Alpha technology. The model name is Alpha 08; it is the cyborg who almost killed one of our men. The integrity of its data core was preserved during the assault but we can't access it without fear we'll damage the data. If we manage to hack the core we could have access to its maker's identity and to who commanded it, which is vital information for us. Do you think you can crack it?"

Truth was, Haru had no idea. But this was a new challenge in his boring life, and he loved nothing more than a challenge where he started out as the underdog.

"I will." He told his chief, and he meant his words.

Yamazaki smiled. "Good," he said, "Very good." 

 

 

Yamazaki Sousuke had very recently left his former position in CIRO to become the head of the cyber police. At the age of 32 years old, he still carried an impressive build, added to the wisdom he had gained from his wild experiences in the field.

Haruka Nanase wasn't his first recruit; at the end of the day waiting in front of his office, the very first man he hired in CIRO was waiting impatiently with a serious look upon his face.

"Seriously Sousuke, what are you playing at?"

Rin Matsuoka was also his oldest friend, so of course he knew how pissed he would be. He had tried to hide Nanase from him, at least at first, but all of his strategies had clearly failed.

When he didn't respond, Rin stepped into his office. "You're not seriously thinking of hiring that scum?"

"I suggest that you watch your tongue and speak a better language in front of your direct superior."

"You little..."

Sousuke silenced him with a dark eye. It was late, certainly past 22:00, not a time to still be at work.

"Go home Rin. We'll talk about this later."

Rin seemed to withdraw at first, but he stopped in his tracks at the doorframe.

"I saw Miss Amakata going out of your office earlier. You're not, seriously, thinking about... _it_?"

"About what?"

"About letting him join the Sharks!" Rin whispered hotly. Sousuke frowned, he knew very well how taboo the subject was since Rin had joined CIRO only to get closer to this secret section.

"We'll talk about it later." Sousuke repeated, inflexible, which set Rin off in such a rage that he left the office by slamming the door.

 

His exit was very welcomed, since Sousuke had plans for the night. Plans that involved a certain USB key he had obtained just a few days ago and which had been occupying his mind and worries for the past few months.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, you can follow me on my blog, and feedback is always welcome.  
> Also everyone is free to have a talk with me. I don't bite and I love talking about everything.  
> I hope the information at the beginning were 1) useful 2) didn't five too much of the chapter.  
> I also hope everything is readable, I really had trouble with the action scene and it's thanks to Frauggie that you have something close to understandable. Everyone gives her a cookie !  
> See you soon I hope, stay hoocked!


	3. 1258

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before this day Haru thought that at least, he knew who he was. The CIRO proved him wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'll try to update once a month I think. Bare with me please!  
> Thank to Frauggie for the beta. Give her kudos guys

 

 

Glossary :

**The Sharks' base** : an immense place hidden in Tokyo's old subway which had been abandoned years ago. The HQ is the center room.

 **E-watch :** Mini computer around your wrist. Had an holographic screen. Can also work for distant communication and give the time and the weather.

 

Starting with :

**Makoto Tachibana (21):** Haru's longest friend. Live with him and his two siblings in a small apartment far from the center of Tokyo. Works in a coffee shop.

 **Masamune Tanaka, known as 'Major' (42) :** Commander of the Shark military operations.

 **Marine Amakata (19) :** A French young mysterious lady using a wheelchair. Have a very high position in the Shark flowchart. (for those who are wondering Marine is a very common French first name)

 

==> [Chapter playlist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXNKQc-nits&list=PLop3Dm7-fjPWsOYvGiQ1kelH8sFT-cC-h) <==

* * *

 

# Chapter Two : 1258

 

 

"Haru, it’s time to wake up."

  
A strong hand shook his shoulder through the white sheet. Haru, who was still asleep, groaned and turned away from it.

  
"You need to get up. It’s 4:30 in the morning already."

  
Haru threw the sheets away and jumped out of bed with incredible speed. By his side Makoto smiled, amused by this sudden change; it was so unusual to see his best friend getting up for work at such an early hour when he used to go to bed when the sun rose.

  
They ate breakfast in silence, Makoto sitting in between Ren and Ran and facing Haru who seemed to be drifting off again.  
"Will you be fine taking them to school?" he asked. It was usually Haru who took them to the nearest school in the morning, but since he had found a new mysterious job the twins kept on bugging him about, he was no longer able to fulfill that role anymore.

  
"I’ll take them with me to the shop. They’ll be able to nap in the storehouse, and I’ll close for a couple of minutes to take them to school," Makoto muttered between two bites of bread. "It’s not that far, if I take my father's motorcycle it won’t take long."

  
"I thought you hated that machine."

  
"I still do, but we have no choice."

Makoto looked at his beloved brother and sister, their lids heavy with drowsiness. "I don’t want them to end up like you and me, I want them to be properly educated so they can become important people."

  
Makoto and Haru had been friends since they were little. Makoto now worked in a coffee shop yet even though he pulled extra hours he barely earned enough to pay for his family to have a roof above their heads and something to eat every night. The twins were going to a decent school, and while it clearly wasn’t the best it was better than nothing, not to mention it was not very far from Makoto’s workplace. They would always go there after school until the shop closed, and Haru would join the group when he woke up, usually around 2 pm, to spend his day on his laptop. They had no idea of how he acquired new clothes or expensive food for them all, and he'd liked it to stay that way. Maybe Makoto suspected it was something illegal, but didn’t think farther than that.

  
And now that he got a fine job he couldn’t complain!

  
"Where are you going exactly?"

  
They were outside; Makoto was fixing Ren's scarf while the motorcycle was turned on. "You’re waiting for the Northern bus, could your new job be in the Nest?"

  
"It might," Haru mumbled.

  
"I want to go there too." Ran said sleepily.

  
"Ha, one day I’ll take you." Makoto brushed his sister's head. "Have you already been in an elevator?"

  
"No, but it sounds so cool!"

  
"It sounds scary," Ren whined. "Thomas said he went so high last time that he threw up on his father’s shoes!"

  
Haru waved as they disappeared towards the industrial part of the town and waited for the bus to arrive a couple of minutes later. Haru sat at the very back, leaned against the window, and closed his eyes. The ride to the first elevator would take at least half an hour, and he needed to get off at the fifth elevator, meaning he could catch a good hour of sleep at the least. He woke up when someone sat next to him. It was a tall black man whose face was covered with scars. A war victim, Haru thought, and he went back to sleep. There were a lot of political refugees in this area of Tokyo since the end of the war.  
The first rays of sunlight caressed his skin through the glass as he was about to arrive. From there, the Nest was shining and looked as if it was made of crystal. It was so pretty that sometimes, Haru wondered how it could have been built by men alone. In front of elevator number five, a dozen people were already waiting. Only ten could enter at once and a new elevator came every minute.

  
"Nanase Haruka. 550 credits left." A voice said when he got in.

  
He sighed; he'd need to buy more credit next time.

  
He stepped out of the elevator and onto a path he now recognized. The Nest was already busy with people at even this early hour.

  
"Hello sir, you seem lost."

  
Once again, Haru sought for the help of the maps' cyborgs that were covering the most crowded squares. He would always feel grateful to them, even if he knew he wouldn’t need their help any longer. Haru soon reached the gates to CIRO and used the pass Yamazaki gave him the day before to gain access. It wasn’t 6 am yet so the hall was deserted and silent. The pure light coming from outside made the place feel peaceful.

  
"Haruka, is that you?"

  
Haru jumped when he heard his name called by a voice he didn’t recognize. He turned around to find a woman wearing leather black pants with a pullover of the same colour. "Hello, I'm sorry if I scared you. My name is Aki Yazaki, and I work here. Sousuke told me a lot about you."

  
Haru frowned when he heard another unknown name, but quickly remembered he had read something of the sort in Yamazaki's office – on his nameplate more precisely. The girl must be a close relative if she was calling him by his first name. Definitely not someone from his family since she seemed nice and was smiling.

  
"I am," he welcomed her with a firm handshake. "Pleased to meet you. Call me Haru."

  
She laughed quietly. "Fine, Haru. How about we get some coffee before you meet the boss?"

  
She said that with such an amused tone that it was clear to Haru that Yamazaki wasn’t her chief, which likely meant she wouldn’t be working with him.

  
"I’m not really thirsty, I already had breakfast before coming here."

  
She appeared slightly disappointed. "Another time, maybe. Ah, he’s coming."

  
The sound of footsteps echoed in the deserted hall and when Yamazaki joined them, Aki saluted him. The chief gave her a gentle nod and she left the room. He then stared at Haru, waiting for something.

  
"I’m not doing that." Haru eventually said after a moment.

  
Yamazaki sighed, "Too bad, at least I tried." And then, he laughed, making Haru think he was a strange man indeed.  
"Do you want some coffee?" he asked.

  
Haru declined once more, and before he had time to wonder what everybody here had with coffee, a needle stung the back of his neck and he fell unconscious into Yamazaki’s arms once more.

 

[*]

 

Haru woke up a couple of minutes later with a heavy head and a French croissant waiting for him on a table. Contrary to the last time this kind of misadventure occurred, the place Haru had woken to was dark and unfriendly. The chair his buttocks occupied was hard and cold, so was the table and so was Yamazaki’s face. The walls were dark, and behind the chief’s back lay a thick dark glass. Haru easily concluded that the place he had been brought to this time was supposed to be an interrogation room.

  
Was that a trap? Had he been fooled again by Yamasaki’s threat? What did they want from him? He knew nothing worth the trouble he was getting.

  
Haru definitely hated Yamazaki.

  
"Did you really have attack me again?"

  
"You didn’t want to drink the coffee."

  
So that was it. Coffee meant anaesthetic. Good to know.

  
"I thought I had signed an official document."

  
"You have," Yamazaki told him, "you have indeed; but it still doesn’t mean that I trust you."

  
The chief put his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his crossed fingers."You should have figure out by now that you’re going to work for a secret service agency. That means we need to take precautions."

  
"Where are we?" Haru asked.

  
"You don't need to know. That’s part of why we needed you to be unconscious while we brought you here. Do you have anything else do ask?"

  
"What are we here for?"

  
Yamazaki sighed and leaned back in his comfortable chair. "Let’s say that it’s a test. We have detected in you some interesting capacities that could be useful in more ways than one. You’re here to confirm if our guesses were right or wrong."

  
"What kind of capacities?"

  
By the intonation he used, Haru got the feeling he wasn’t really talking about his hacking skills, but honestly, that’s all he had that could interest the Japanese government. What else could he do, better than anyone else? Not that much. It’s true Haru had always been good with art and cooking. When he was younger he was said to swim like a dolphin though he had never been in a pool before. He couldn’t speak foreign languages well but he understood most of them without having learned any of them, and when he wanted to he could assimilate anything rather quickly: skills such as hacking, or the history of Medieval Japan – that took him a full night but he remembered every important date, battle and name.

  
"It’s just a theory. You're a genius, but I think there's more to you than meets the eye."

  
Haru rolled his eyes.

  
"I think you can sense things better than ordinary people, that your instinct is better, and that you know more than you think you know. For example, where are we?"

  
Haru frowned, "CIRO main building I guess."

  
"Why would you say that?" Yamazaki asked. "You didn't take more than a couple steps into the entrance before we basically abducted you."

  
"I haven’t been unconscious for more than an couple of minutes, you couldn’t have brought me very far." Haru retorted.

  
"How do you know that? How do you know how long you’ve been sleeping?"

  
"Because I… guess?" Haru's voice started to quaver. "Yesterday I checked the time, and I had remained unconscious for approximately twenty minutes. Today it couldn’t have been more than 17 minutes."

  
"16 minutes and 35 seconds exactly. Bravo Nanase, that's impressive."

  
Haru scowled and looked away. So what? He had guessed it right, that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

  
"You’re more conscious about your body and about the world outside than most people I’ve ever met. How do you know we’re still in CIRO then?"

  
"It’s because of the pressure," Haru replied without thinking. "Yesterday I felt there was something weird when I woke up in your office. Outside the windows we could see the Tokyo tower and the sunny sky but… we’re actually in a basement level. We’re deep in the ground, that’s the only way to explain the pressure I feel in my ears even now."

  
While he was talking Haru realized, little by little, how insane and foolish his little theory was. And yet he was so convinced it was the truth! He just knew it and he didn’t know how, just like he had guessed Rin’s password and everything else. Could it be that Yamazaki was right about him? Could it mean that he was special?

  
"Impressive," Yamazaki said, "Really impressive. There’s only one other person who figured out this little detail. Do you believe me now?"

  
Haru was lost. He wanted answers and the man in front of him seemed to be the only one holding them in the palm of his hands. "I’ll give you the benefit of a doubt."

  
"So you’re ready to pass the test?"

  
"What tells you that I’ll pass?"

  
"Because we have other people like you ion our team, and they know you will."

  
Suddenly the perspective of Haru not being alone lifted a weight off of his shoulders, something he didn’t know he had been carrying since the day he was born. It was fear that went away at that moment, the fear of something he didn’t know yet but it had terrified him, and had done so from the very beginning of his existence.

  
"What do I have to do?" He asked. He hated the way he did – he sounded almost desperate to know – and was sure Yamazaki felt it. He was now vulnerable in front of him. He hated it; he hated him.

  
He didn't, not really. He hated something else that looked like Yamazaki but wasn’t him exactly; it was something old and dead, something from his past and from his memory, something locked in a part of his head.

  
Yamazaki threw a ballpoint at him. Haru caught it without any difficulty even if he wasn’t looking. "We’ll give you a piece of paper and a questionnaire. Just answer as you wish and be honest, that’s all we’re asking for right now."  
With that, he left the room.

 

 

Sousuke walked only a couple of meters away and opened the door on his right. He found a woman there, watching Haru through the glass, struggling with the test when he didn’t know what it truly consisted of.

  
The woman was sitting in an old wheelchair. "He’s got a high spirit," the woman said. "He must be young, I think."  
"Marine, what are your thoughts?" Sousuke asked.

  
Marine Amakata stared intensely at Haru’s face. "He’s one of them, that’s for certain." Her words drew a smile on her partner’s face. "But I can’t tell what kind he is from here. I need to meet him face to face."

  
Sousuke uncrossed his arms, troubled, "Do you think he could be-"

  
"No, no, rest assured. It’s nothing bad. I’m 90% sure but there’s something a little bit odd I’d like to check. You can give him the jacket. I’ll meet him in HQ."

  
Sousuke opened the door for her, to her displeasure. "Stop doing that Sousuke, I’m not that incapable."

  
"I was merely trying to be a gentleman."

  
She hesitated, but in the end she surrendered and responded with a timid smile.

  
Marine rolled down the long corridors of CIRO. Before going back to the HQ she needed a good hot chocolate with a croissant. Everyone knew who she was at the agency, but very few dared to talk to her – whether because of the old fashioned wheelchair, because she was said to be very talkative about boring subjects or because no one truly knew what her job was and everyone who’d tried to had mysteriously left the CIRO within the week, no one dared to comment on the matter.  
The only friendly contact she had outside of HQ was Matsuoka Rin, which wasn’t really surprising since he had made extremely clear his intent to join the so called top secret group of people she was leading: the Sharks.

  
"Good morning Miss Amakata. Hot chocolate and a croissant, as always?"

  
He was maybe the most gorgeous creature Marine had seen of all time, and he seemed to get more beautiful every day. He was wearing his hair in a short ponytail and he had put on his favourite black vest with his favourite white and slinky T-shirt, so that everyone turned around when he passed by them. Nothing could resist him, or at least that was what he thought. Because she had always said no to him.

  
"Merci beaucoup!" she said in her mother tongue. She took a bite, "Hum, those ones from Luigi’s are delicious."

  
"You look delighted today," Rin went on. He had always been a good observer. "Did anything out of the ordinary happen?"  
Rin was smart, suspicious, and wily as a fox. He probably knew already that she had just auditioned someone. His jealously would bring him trouble one day, Marine thought.

  
"Yes!" she said with a smile and a hint of sarcasm. "I’ve just meet an extraordinary boy. I’ll be glad to introduce him to you."  
Rin sent her a polite smile, hiding his anger, showing Marine that he had understood the hidden message she wanted to send. Yes, Haruka Nanase would be the new Shark, not him, and there was no room for negotiation.

 

The more Haru wrote, the more he felt like the ink was absorbing his energy. He was exhausted after answering the 42 most existentialist questions he had had the chance to read in his whole life - 'what defines Humanity', 'what is happiness to you', or 'what is your favourite colour' were some examples and he honestly didn’t see any logic in them but in the end, did it really matter?

  
The only thing Haru wanted right now was to meet those people who were ‘like him’, even if he didn’t really know what that entailed.

  
Someone took his answers away and told him he was wanted in Yamazaki’s office. They told him it was directly on the left after he exited the room, but for some reason Haru didn’t feel like going left. Before the interview he would have hushed his inner voice but now that he was enlightened about what it could be, he chose to listen to his sixth sense for once, and took the path on the right.

  
It led him to other offices that weren’t Yamazaki’s. He only saw white doors and white walls everywhere; and then, burning in the corner of his eye, was a golden nameplate like the ones on every door, with a name.

  
_Matsuoka Rin_

  
His breath caught in his throat.

  
Flashes of their night together rushed to his mind. Why did he have to work here? Did it mean Yamazaki asked him to steal a file from his own man? What kind of boss would do that?

  
Did he doubt Rin? Was he a traitor? What was on the Sakura file and why didn’t he look before giving it back?

  
"What are you looking at, _again_?"

  
Haru's body froze when he recognized Rin's voice, sharp and angry. "Your name," Haru replied simply. "I got lost. I need to get to Yamazaki's office."

  
Rin still looked annoyed, but he answered anyway, "Sousuke's office is on the other part of the wing."

  
"Do you really work here?" Haru said, though his eyes were still stuck on Rin's door.

  
"It seems so, since I have an actual office. I have been for almost a year now. What are you doing here?"

 

  
"I was invited. They said that since I could do things most people can’t-"  
"I know why you’re here and I know who you are." Rin interrupted him, " You’re just a stupid nerd with a pretty face. You’re only there because of my oversight."

  
"I should thank you then,"Haru replied, and Rin scowled, "I owe my presence here to you alone."

  
This last provocation made Rin curl his fists into balls. It was easy to see he was torn between his will to remain civilized at his workplace and the urge to punch a wall - since Rin had called it pretty, Haru wasn’t particularly worried for his face…

  
Rin’s traits softened eventually. "Fine, I’ll take you there. I need to have a word with him anyway. Come with me."

  
The quick change of mood didn’t affect Haru much – it lightly pleased him at the most. Somehow he understood that Rin was pissed with him; and yet he also felt something else behind his anger, that it wasn’t just him that Rin was infuriated with, but something bigger, and Haru was just the poor unlucky man standing in the way when Rin decided to bite back.

  
He shrugged and followed Rin. He didn’t have anything to lose anyway, and at the most he would find his way back to Yamazaki’s office and spend some time with Rin, sober, still very well dressed, and still very handsome. It wasn’t just the alcohol the night before, Rin _was_ gorgeous, at least in Haru’s eyes there was absolutely nothing he would change about him. Haru was especially fond of the Rin's ponytail. Red strands of hair were flirting with the back of his neck and Haru felt his fingers getting numb with the urge to touch the skin there.

  
"You call Yamazaki by his first name," Haru said to change his train of thought, "Do you know him well?"

  
"He’s my boss but he’s also a good friend of mine." Rin replied. "We've known each other since we were kids."

  
It bit at Haru's curiosity since he thought Rin and him were the same age, and Yamazaki way older. "How old is he?"

  
Rin turned his head, "Oh, it's not what you think. He's going on 33. He was my babysitter when he was in high school."

  
Haru shrugged, disappointed somehow by the answer. "He doesn't look his age."

  
"Thank you." Rin looked genuinely surprised. "That's nice for him, you should tell him when-"

  
"He looks older." Haru added quickly.

  
Rin remained silent for a couple of seconds. "Actually my first impression was right, you're a piece of shit. I really don't know how I could have been so stupid."

  
For some reason Haru wanted to laugh when there was honestly no valuable reason to.

  
"Must have been the alcohol." Rin muttered when they reached Yamazaki's office.

  
"Don't put it on the bourbon!" Haru said vehemently.

  
His night with Rin, as wonderful as it had been – or existed in his blurry memories – didn't mean much and was never supposed to. But if there was one thing that it wasn't, that was that it was probably a drunken mistake. Haru had seen it in Rin's eyes, and had felt it in his bones; Rin liked him, and Haru liked Rin too.

  
"You know it's not true. You know it wasn't only-"

  
Rin pushed him against the wall, his arm blocking the way to Yamazaki's door. "Know what? That I wanted you? Yes I did, yes you look good. But I'm not the one checking you out with dilated pupils from the moment I saw you, unlike a certain blue eyed boy I won't mention because I'm too polite for that. Now, if you want to take care of certain things before meeting the boss, the men's room is right there."

  
The silence that followed was as harsh as Rin's words. His hand let go to create a path and his angry eyes left Haru's to concentrate on Yamazaki's office, as if staring would make it open by magic. There was definitely something else behind Rin's anger.

  
"So things are really complicated at work at the moment," Haru said innocently, remembering their conversation at the bar. "Your life is nowhere where you would like it to be."

  
Rin stood still, flabbergasted for a second by Haru’s statement. "How dare-"

  
Yamazaki's burst out of his own office. "Now, now, boys. Calm down."

"I'm calm," Haru said.

  
"And I'm obviously not talking to you Nanase."

  
Yamazaki was already catching Rin's wrist before his friend fled away from trouble. "You've gone too far, you need to apologize and you know it."

  
"How am I the one who had to apologize when I'm the victim in all this?" Rin nearly shouted. He looked out of himself, Haru noticed, way more angry than he had previously. "First you let that man trick me, and then you let him... _in_. How could you do this to me? You know it's what I've been working for all my life?"

  
"I know," Yamazaki said softly, "I know Rin, but it's not your time. They need Nanase right now, tomorrow it might be you."

  
"I'm sick of waiting for a tomorrow that might never come! I don't have a lot of time left, in fact it's probably already too late!"  
Rin pulled out of Yamazaki's grip and disappeared from their sight. Haru heard his new boss sigh deeply. He looked troubled and deeply apologetic.

 

  
"Please, excuse Rin for his behaviour. He's not himself lately but it will pass, eventually," he said as they settled in his office. "He's merely angry at me and he doesn't know how to deal with it."

  
"I understand."

  
Haru took a seat in front of Yamazaki, not really knowing what he should expect so shortly after the end of the test. Never did he think he would get an answer this early. Had he passed, just as Yamazaki had said before he even started writing down his answer? They must have a very fast corrector at the CIRO.

  
"So what now?" Haru asked eventually, "What's the difference now that I passed the test? Am I getting a promotion or a bigger office?"

  
Yamazaki seemed to think about it for a moment, which looked kind of awkward – since it was, for Haru, something he should already know – and said in a funny voice, "Kind of, if you put it that way," and smiled. "It's a special kind of promotion, the kind of one that people yarn for all their lives."

  
Haru was all ears. He had a feeling he knew just who Yamazaki was talking about exactly.

  
The boss regained his serious face and crossed his fingers on his lap. "It's a first in the history of CIRO, so know that it will likely make some people jealous, but we've decided with the current qualifications to directly promote you to a very special Unit."

  
"Is this where the other people like me work?" Haru asked.

  
Yamazaki nodded, "Indeed. In fact this unit was created specifically for people like you, at the very beginning. But with time we found a lot of opportunity to serve the Japanese interest worldwide while using your capacity at their might. But you have to understand one thing first and fore most; the existence of this organization is top secret. Only the Emperor and some of his close collaborators are aware of this." Yamazaki warned him. "Needless to say, if a word about the unit leaks in the press or falls on the ears of the wrong people you're dead, and the entire CIRO will probably be in deep trouble."

  
"I'll be silent as a tomb." Haru said.

  
"Fine, I guess it's good that you're not the talkative type."

  
Yamazaki pressed his forefinger on his desk and suddenly, the Victorian bookcase resting against the wall moved to the left to reveal a secret door. "Are you ready to be a Shark, Nanase?"

  
Stunned by such archaic technology in a place like this, it took for Haru a second to get up and follow Yamazaki down the narrow path. There were no screens on the walls this time, only concrete and mud, a sign that they were really under the surface of earth. Old neon lights were illuminating the path.

  
"This tunnel was made early in the 20th century at the same time as the subway. We restored it a bit when we changed the HQ location a couple of years ago."

  
Soon they stopped in front of a door. There was a digital scanner guarding the access. Yamazaki put his hand on the blue screen and a cybervoice spoke.

  
"Good morning Ex-Commander Yamazaki, you shall have access."

  
The door made a loud noise, and with a push it opened to a new area. Haru stepped in first.

  
It was just a short corridor. The room was made in a dark-grey metal Haru didn't recognize from the roof to the ceiling; there were a dozen lockers on each of the walls, with a single name written on each of their doors. The unit must be very restrained.

  
"This is where you'll put your jacket." Yamazaki told him. He then lead Haru to the other side of the door, which was again, guarded by an eye recognition scanner.

  
"You should sleep more Ex-Captain Yamazaki, you have rings under your eyes," the same robotic voice said. "Access confirmed."

  
The room Haru stepped into was a kind of sight he had never seen before: it was gigantic and packed with computers at every corner. Their screens showed views from streets he recognized – some were from Tokyo itself, the Underground mostly, but also some important and sensitive places in the upper town and the Nest. But there were also plans of old building in Europe and isolated house in the country – and some were screening lines of code, the profile of a not very friendly looking person in Haru's perspective, the stock exchange, and the weather.

  
It also seemed someone wanted to order a pizza, but Haru ignored about that part of the screen.

  
"Nanase, I'm glad to introduce you to the H-"

  
"Are you actually hacking the European Central Bank or is this a hoax?"

  
"No!" a female voice exclaimed, "No we're not, definitely not! Well not really, we're trying to break through their defences but it's just merely, a test-"

  
"Aki."

  
"Oh sorry Sousuke, I shouldn't have said that aloud, probably; oh hi there Haru!"

Haru recognized the young lady from the hall when he first walked in.

  
"You tried to poison me," he said flatly when she saluted him, and Aki pouted.

  
"I had to, it's protocol!"

  
"Nanase Haruka, meet Yazaki Aki, our latest recruit. Well, until now. She's very agile and knows a lot about martial arts."

  
"They call me the squid," Aki added, not without a hint of pride.

  
Haru wondered if she didn't mistake that with an eel, but Yamazaki interrupted his thoughts.

  
"Where are the others?" he asked her.

  
"Most of them are out on patrol or in recovery." Aki told him. "Nagisa and the Major are still working on Alpha 08, they have been on that all night..."

  
"You shouldn't be worried about Nagisa's health, if things continue this way his body will bury us all. As for the Major... well, she'll probably bury Nagisa after we're all dead."

  
Haru didn't get the private joke but the other two laughed very loudly, something that irritated him since he was completely lost. One question only occupied his mind though.

  
"Is she like me?" He questioned, when they were done with their chat.

  
Aki frowned, but soon her eyes smiled when she looked back at Yamazaki. "He's one of us?" She said, with a bright and hopeful voice that could only be something good, extremely good. Haru didn't need Yamazaki's nod of approval to have his answer, the joy on Aki's face was enough to him.

  
There was at least a million things he wanted to ask, such as what were they exactly, but this would need to wait, and all thanks to the prompt arrival of the person they called Major.

  
They heard her coming from the other end of the room. Her boots were making a racket, and her sharp and harsh steps didn't help. The first thing Haru observed was her hands, which were covered in engine oil.

  
"Sousuke, my dear Sousuke, what are you doing in my Unit again?" She said without looking at him. "Aki, get me tissue before I stain his white shirt, it'll be a shame wouldn't it? Or a souvenir of what actual work looks like."

  
The Major seemed to like Yamazaki as much as Haru did. He already liked her.

  
"I'm here on Marine's request. She accepted Haru and asked me to give him a jacket." Yamazaki informed her.

  
"Well, well, well. Thank you my dear," The Major told Aki when she got back with a white tissue, "Be careful when you throw it away, engine oil is even more difficult to bleach than blood on your white panties the days mother nature calls ahead of what you had expected."

  
Yamazaki crossed his arms in front on his chest. He opened his mouth but the Major interrupted him before he had the change to argue with her. "I heard you. The boy will have his jacket." She turned around to give a look at Haru at last. "Nice eyes. Are you the one who will take care of Alpha 08?"

  
"I don't know yet-"

  
"He will." Sousuke informed Major for him.

  
"Fantastic!" She exclaimed. "I like men of action. I’m the Major."

  
She looked around the same age as Yamazaki, or maybe a little bit older. Her hair was dark and cropped short just under her ears, she was wearing the same clothing combination that Aki had, and her eyes were small and full of malice.

  
"Nanase Haruka." He shook her hand and felt that Major Tanaka really had a good grip, just like he had imagined her to have. "Call me Haru."

  
"Ha, you'll be lucky if I remember your name pretty boy. Now you would excuse but I have more important things to do than to talk with you. Sousuke, escort me to the exit."

  
She simply ordered and Yamazaki was at her beck and call, the scene made Haru freeze on the spot, it seemed so easy for her.

  
"Pretty impressive, isn't she?"

  
Haru turned around, finding that Aki had caught him staring at the Major's back.

  
"To be honest, she scared me the first time I saw her." Aki confessed. "Don't repeat that to anyone, okay?"

  
"Silent as a tomb."

  
"Okay, great. It's nice to have a new member. I mean I loved being the youngest, but I don't know, everyone here is so cool and I'm just still learning to be me."

  
"How did you come to be here, in the unit?" Haru asked her,taking a step closer to sit on the desk. "How did you find out that you had... this something?"

  
"Sousuke did. I've known him since I was very young, like Rin. You've met Rin?"

  
Seeing the idiotic smile she wore at the very moment she mentioned his name, Haru was more than tempted to expose every little detail of his after dark encounter with Rin; since Aki was the only friendly person in this unit he knew so far though he chose to keep this piece of information for later.

  
"Anyway he used to babysit me when I was like, 3 or something." She told him. "He did that for some time,helping me do my homework and taking me to my extra curricular activities. He left with Rin a couple of years ago until he called me back only after a very long time. He said he wanted me to meet someone, someone extraordinary, and that I should really, really come. I came here to the CIRO entrance hall, just like you."

  
"Did he offer some coffee?" Haru asked bitterly.

  
"He did," Aki said with a chuckle, "I took the coffee, then I woke up in the interrogation room-"

  
"Long story short, you met that person." Haru ended.

  
"Yes, absolutely! And, you don't know Sousuke yet, but he's very rarely wrong about something. He had never been more right about someone than about Miss Amakata. She really changed my life."

  
Major returned from her little conversation with Yamazaki alone, sporting an e-watch and some information about what she called 'The Premise of Hell' - that was simply one or two weeks of physical training to gain an optimum physical condition for the job, according to Aki. All of which were required before he could use his hacker's skills on his personal mission: the Alpha 08 data core.

  
That left them now walking with Aki to meet Miss Amakata.

  
"Alpha 08 is a cyborg we fought against during the last mission. She was built in line with a very advanced technology, developed here specifically, then had been stolen by a terrorist group we still don't know very well yet. Your mission will be to crack her data core to find out every little detail so we can trace back to who built her, and eventually who ordered it, be it the terrorist group itself or a wealthy buyer."

  
"You call it 'her'?" Haru remarked.

  
"Yeah, I'm the cyborg lover of the group." Aki said with wariness.

  
"I'm not judging you."

  
Aki stopped in front of him. "Really?" Haru frowned, and she went on, "No but, usually everyone kind of makes fun of me for that... thing I have for cyborgs."

  
Haru shrugged. He just didn't have any kind of opinion about the subject; he didn't care and didn't want to.

  
"Anyway, before going to the Veda chamber we need to save your prints and your retina scan in the HQ database so you can wander the base at ease without worry. Your e-watch has a map and all the information you need to know about the base and the Sharks depending on your degree of authorization. Since you're a rookie, you'll only have vital information I guess, just like me. Which is totally fine!"

  
By the sound of her voice, Haru guessed she desperately wanted to know more. It was all written on her face. Every single one of her emotions could be read on her face.

  
A while later, and Haru had ants in his pants; those administrative duties Aki had told him were simply pissing him off since he should be talking with an 'amazing and life changing' person, something he wasn't doing because a stupid computer couldn't take a damn picture of his eyes.

  
"Registration failing. Stop blinking. Moron."

  
How dare a machine insult him?

  
"Last but not least, your measurements!"

  
A cyborg with a tape-measure examined his body from every conceivable angle, "I wear medium," Haru scowled, but his answer only offended the cyborg instead of making it work quicker.

  
"We only sew tailor made jackets!" The cyborg pestered.

  
Haru remained silent and patiently waited for this day to end on a more positive note, or so he hoped.

 

[*]

 

"Is she there?"

  
Eventually Aki lead him to what she called the Veda chamber. When he asked why it was called this way, Aki answered that it was named after holy texts of Hinduism, and that he would understand in a minute. The ants in his pants were now gone, replaced by anticipation and anxiety. What kind of answers lay behind that door?

  
Aki put her hand on his arm. "Don't worry. It'll be alright. I'll be right here."

  
Contrary to the rest of the base, the Veda chamber was full of old artifacts and furniture. There was a wooden desk at the very back and a woman in a wheelchair was writing on it when Haru entered. It seemed the screens were still omnipresent though, as there was a single giant one behind the desk and smaller ones on the other walls.

  
"Haruka! What took you so long?" The woman in the wheelchair said. "Come here, don't be shy. I'm not going to bite, but I might just roll on your feet at the most."

  
Her name was Marine Amakata and she was, contrary to what Haru had imagined, younger than him. She had long brown hair with a golden headband, and was wearing a white blouse with a long dark-green skirt.

  
"My friends aren't very nice. They bring you here without giving you any explanation as for why you, why now, and why here. They leave this all to me. They always do!"

  
"It's fine," Haru lied for the sake of politeness.

  
"No it's not, of course it's not. But we'll fix this, won't we? Have a seat, please. You may want to sit with all the things I need to tell you."

  
Haru obliged sitting on the first chair he found, a modernized Louis XIII from the looks of it, and was offered a mug of chocolate he declined.

  
"Haruka, I am going to ask you a question twice, and this might seem a little bit weird at first but trust me, okay? You'll understand in the end. Are you ready?"

  
He nodded. He was more than ready.

  
"So, Haruka, do you believe in reincarnation?"

  
Marine scrutinized his reaction, but Haru merely shrugged. He had heard of religious groups talking about it recently since Makoto believed in it, wanting better lives for Ren and Ran after their deaths. But his own opinion on the subject was neutral. He had never thought about it seriously, that's all.

  
"I see." Marine said.

  
"What?" He hadn't talked at all, how could she-

  
"I'm good at reading minds. Literally."

  
Marine went back to the desk and came back with a book that looked as old as the Earth itself.

  
"This room is called the Veda chamber. I named it after these books, the Vedas. They are some of the oldest books in the world. For the Hindus, the Vedas are the universal knowledge, revealed to the sages and transmitted generation after generation orally until they were finally written down. I often meditate in this room. Sometimes I have revelations too, but today I'm the one who will reveal something to you, something about yourself.

  
"There's a belief that the soul is immortal. That after our death, our soul goes from one body to another, even into an animal or a plant. It is trapped in the cycle of reincarnation, the samsâra. In order to find peace, the soul must find its way to salvation with Faith and a healthy way of life. That's the only way to get out of the infinite circle of reincarnation, otherwise the soul keeps on living on Earth, in a different body. I do believe in that."

  
On the screen behind her, multiple pictures of Marine appeared. Some were photographs, some were paintings, they looked to be from different periods of time, but it was definitely the same person in every image.

  
Marine showed him the first painting. "That's me in 1849," she told Haru, who drank in her words, "I died a couple of days after the painting was made. Tuberculosis…I have the specificity of always dying very young, you'll see."

  
She moved onto the second photograph. "This is me in 1912, when I was on the Titanic. Needless to say how it ended I guess? The movie was quite realistic."

  
On the left there was a photograph of a family standing around a girl in a wheelchair. "That's me in 2001.I had a Neurodegenerative disease this time, there was no cure. Next one was in 2084, I got hit by the first flying car when I was 8 and I spent my entire life in a wheelchair yet again."

  
"It's the same." Haru moved closer to the screen. "Your wheelchair, it's the same in every one of the pictures..."

  
"I'm sentimental. I like to keep my old stuff." Marine said with a smile.

  
"You mean, you-You remember-"

  
"Some do. In fact, every single living being obeys samsâra's law, but only a few are ever aware of it. Only a few have the capacity to remember their previous lives. We call them Jivas. _We_ are called Jivas."

  
"So you remember everything about your previous lives." Haru repeated.

  
"Every second. Everything I have seen, everything I have learned, every person I have met, every dear one I lost. It's all in my head."

  
Haru stared, mesmerized, at the pictures on the screen. There were 6, to be precise, and each one of them had Marine's face in it. The exact same face that was looking at him now. It was so troubling that he almost needed to touch them to see if they were real.

  
"You need to know that as a Jiva I am special. We aren't equals; some don't remember every detail of their previous lives, and they might have only some sort of déjà-vu experience and suddenly realize they are really good at math or Greek and Latin because there's a part of their brains that had already learned that. For example, Aki has an amazing gesture memory. She remembers every martial arts she had practiced in her previous lives, which is why Sousuke wanted her in his team."

  
"What do I have to do with this then?" Haru asked. "I'm not good at anything really."

  
"You're wrong. I think you're a Jiva, I can feel it. Have you never seen someone in the street, or met someone and thought, damn, I feel like I've known this guy all my life but it's the first time meeting him, how can it be possible?"

  
Haru's eyes widened, she really could read his mind.

  
"Don't worry. I'll give you your privacy."

  
Marine put the book back in its place, and rolled up next to Haru.

  
"Haruka, I think that deep down you know I'm right. You feel different, you are different. You're not just the Haruka of this life, you're the Haruka of all your previous lives. But it seems you can't remember them yet and that's what causes the trouble in your heart. Once you accept this you'll sleep in peace again. Acceptance is the first step to gaining all your precious memories back."

  
She put her hands on both of his temples and linked their foreheads. "I am going to dive into your memory. Don't worry, it'll be painless, and I guarantee that I'll unlock your memories from your pasts."

  
"And what if you're wrong?" Haru asked, his voice quivering., "What if you're wrong and I'm just an ordinary guy?"

  
"I am never wrong. Trust me Haruka. Close your eyes."

  
So what if it was true? Reincarnation... so many people, unhappy and miserable after the last world war, sought happiness and the promise of a better life in this belief. Haru had seen this as a placebo against misery, but after Marine's speech and seeing all those pictures, he began to have his doubts. Sure, the pictures could have been fake; but if everything was then how could he explain Rin?

  
Marine was right, the process was painless and quick, and yet those couple of seconds where their foreheads touched felt like an eternity. Billions of mental images rushed into his mind. The Hagia Sophia in Constantinople full of people, his parents holding his tiny hands as they stepped by, a man he saved from being hit by a train in India, the war between the two Irelands, the second fall of the British Empire; there were too many memories at once but in each one of them he recognized his own body. It was in the reflexion of a mirror or in the still water that his eyes fell on a face he knew all too well: his own.

  
Marine let go of his forehead; she seemed bemused, as if there was something she couldn't explain, as if Haru was the first mystery she had seen in ages.

  
"Haruka, what happened to you?" She asked gravely.

  
But he couldn't tell her.

  
On the screens, behind the desk and on the walls on each sides, there were at least twenty pictures of Haru's face, all coming from different times. He remembered now, he remembered having all these lives. Just like Marine had said, he couldn't remember every single detail, but some precise moments were still very clear in his mind.

  
"How can you be so old?" She said to herself in disbelief.

  
"I don't know. I really don't know. Something happened to me, I know that. I can't remember my old lives very well, but then there’s a blank and my two last lives, which I remember entirely now." Haru told her quickly.

  
"There's a thick fog in your heart and mind," she went on, "It started at some point in your timeline and then it completely obscured the rest of your memory. I've never seen that before. It's... intriguing."

  
They stayed silent for a couple of minutes, Marine deliberately giving Haru some space for himself to regain his composure. With the wealth of information she told him, and the ones he found in himself, he knew now why he was so good at languages at least. He had lived in many different countries and had spoken them.

  
"I need to ask this again, Haruka. Do you believe in reincarnation now?"

  
Silent tears ran on his cheeks, the silent pain of having lost people he loved, knowing he would never see them again. It was the pain of missing something he didn't even know. "Yes," he murmured, "I do."

  
Marine tried to comfort him and patted his shoulder. She knew all too well, having been there herself, that there was nothing she could say to ease the pain; only time could heal.

 

 

When he got out of the Veda chamber Aki was still waiting for him, checking something on her e-watch while eating a slice of pizza. "Oh, hey! Haru, this way!"

  
She ran to him, seeing his reddening eyes. "See? She's amazing. Life changing. She saw right through me and found the answer to everything I was troubled with. I cried so much the first few days, but it will get better with time. How old are you, by the way? I'm just so curious about other Jivas! I'm only 171 years old, but it's just my third life so... you?"  
Haru felt so tired. He had never felt so tired in his whole life.

  
"1258."

  
Aki abruptly stopped her steps. Haru walked towards the exit. He wanted to get out of here, to get fresh air. Aki didn't follow him.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are very welcomed and very loved just like kudos and bookmarks and recs! Talk about the story to your friend if you like it!  
> On another tone did you find the glossary useful or spoiling? What are your feelings about this?  
> I might draw some concept as well...if I feel like it
> 
> See you next water time :)


	4. A happy encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get serious at CIRO for Haru : it's his first day of being a secret agent! But first he must train, and for that he'll get help - by the very, very best.  
> And who knows, perhaps late training can lead to a happy meeting...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took an eternity to update. I apologize. I hope you're still hoocked and remember everything cause I probably don't haha. AH I miss writing multichapter fics...  
> Anyway we continue with Haru's journey to CIRO and today chapter deals with his first day of work...with its surprise and new mysteries to resolve...  
> Like always, glossary, character descriptions and a playlist at the beginning, leave comment and kudos if you liked it, and see you at the end of the chapter !

 

Glossary :

**General transport system :** Each travel equals a certain amount of credit. Validation is done by facial recognition when entering the mean of transport. 

**The VTI** : Virtual Training Improvement. A machine used for training elite soldiers. Time goes by four time more slowly when you enter the machine. Can use people memories to elaborate the best training environment. 

**City of Tokyo** : After wars and nuclear bombing the Subway had been abandoned due to radiation and toxics, and people started to live up in the sky and built the Nest. The district are classified from 1 to 12, there are surrounding the Nest and the Underground. They have different activities and populations. 

 

 Starting with :

**Matsuoka Rin (23) :** Working at the CIRO in Sousuke's unit, who was in babysitter when they were younger. Seems to know a lot more about the Sharks than what he should. Lives alone in the Nest. Motives? 

**Natsuya Kirishima (27) :** A member of the Shark, Major's right hand since Sousuke's departure.  

 

[==> Chapter's Playlist<==](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLop3Dm7-fjPXGkbuDjgH5kEcc-GIyQFuw)

* * *

 

 

 

## Chapter 3 : A Happy Encounter

 

 

The 7 AM bus to the Nest was already full when Haru stepped in. Glued to the window he managed, however, to finish his reading on the holographic screen of the e-watch. It provided him with tons of useful information; for example, Haru had no idea that they were several types of Jivas. 

Aki was very likely to be a 'Sensor'. They were said to have corporal memory and to have better physical conditions - exactly the type of person you would want on the battlefield. Sousuke made a clever manoeuver by choosing her. They also have the tendency to be too self confident and careless to counterbalance their qualities. 

Marine was, without a doubt, part of the most interesting group: the 'Omnis'. They possessed at some degree what Marine had called the Universal Knowledge the day before. Their memories knew no boundary, and with age they could use 100% of their brains’ capacities, which was how Haru explained what the young lady had accomplished in the Vega chamber. 

There were of course several less important groups – 'Creators' were really good with their hands, a description that suited Haru well, 'Basics' just had a vague impression of déjà-vu and represented the most part of the Jivas, the 'Eros' dedicated their lives to their lovers, and of course there were the 'Brahmans', the oldest Jivas, who spent their lives in the most reclosed part of the world in order to find salvation. 

When the bus arrived, Haru was reading about the last group of Jivas, and he frowned at the negative tone the text used. 

"Nanase Haruka, 150 credits left." The elevator said when he entered its doors. 

The 'Kvars' were the last ones Haru read about. Very skilled but ambitious, they benefited from every other groups’ capacities but reincarnated less often. Their power lust could lead them to greed and envy, and it wasn’t impossible that some of the most terrifying dictators were actually Kvars according to some official sources.  

The elevator's gates opened and Haru deactivated the holographic screen. He used his card to enter CIRO’s entrance hall, where there was a short cut to the Sharks' base without taking the secret door in Yamazaki’s office that Aki had shown him yesterday. There he found Major, a cigarette in her hand and a glass of orange juice in the other. 

"Pretty boy! You're just in time," she said vividly, "I hope you've had the sleep of your life, otherwise I don't want to think about the torture you'll have to endure. Did you sign anything about your safety or how we would take no responsibility if something nasty happens to you?" 

Haru vaguely remembered something of the sort, something along the lines of 'giving his life to CIRO', but he never thought he would risk his neck before going on the field. Of course he couldn't sleep last night, with all this new information and the excitation. His mind couldn't rest at all. He had tried not to remember but all of his memories came at the same time, and when he started the process it was impossible to stop. Haru realized quickly that there were lives he had enjoyed more than others, and these were usually the ones where his recollections were the most intense and precise. 

And yet, these hands he kept on seeing, he didn't know who they belonged too. And what scared him the most and kept him awake all night was that little voice in his head, whispering in his ears how much he wished them to be Rin's. That was insane. He had just met Rin. 

Yet his terribly handsome smile haunted his night, and the weight it left in his stomach hadn't quite disappeared when dawn came. Haru felt like the dread would inevitably be there until all of his questions resolved themselves, be it with the help of others like Marine, or thanks to his own memories. 

Major's low voice snapped him back to reality. "I was saying," she repeated, which meant he had spaced out more than he had thought, "that your training will have to wait. We're waiting for your instructor." 

"I'll have an instructor?" 

Major stubbed out her cigarette on the console and sighed deeply, as if Haru was a lost cause. "My, my, pretty face, my grandmother had more muscles than you have and the only activity she ever practiced was knitting. How to put this without sounding too hurtful..." 

Haru had to stop himself from saying it was already done. 

"You're thinner than a reed. I bet you've never practiced any kind of physical activity, so of course you'll need an instructor. Do you even know what a crunch is? Or a push up?" 

"Don't you have super modern machines that can work for me?" Haru asked bluntly. 

To that, Major replied with a sarcastic laugh. "Oh my, this is going to be so funny." 

 

She was laughing and joking, but deep down Major was concerned about Haru's instructor. His name was Natsuya Kirishima, he had been in the Sharks for almost half a decade and had never been late, not one day. It didn't help than, twenty minutes after he got there, Haru heard Aki shouting from the control room that they had a distress call coming from the Underground. 

Major took her e-watch to her lips. "Urgent meeting, code 03." 

Aki ran to the console and Haru could only watch how efficient the two women were while managing the crisis. A dozen people were now standing in the room, some had already put their jackets with a red Shark on their backs, and were calmly watching Major tapping on the central computer. In a couple of second she had localized where the distress call was coming and had found all the security cameras, the traffic and the elevators' controllers. 

"It's Nao," Major murmured, "The infiltration must have gone wrong. Shit." 

"Look!" A shark said, "Naysuya is with him, and there's more-" 

"He's holding someone else." Aki added. 

On the giant screen Haru watched his instructor dressed in black leather, his right arm wrapped around the waist of a man with long gray hair and wearing very original clothes – he had a white robe and an orange hang, he looked like a monk. On his shoulder there was another body, unmoving; there was some blood rolling from the corner of his mouth. Haru saw no breathing movement, this one was certainly dead. 

"Natsuya," Major spoke through the e-watch again, "Natsuya, blink three times if you hear me." 

He did this without halting his steps. 

"We need to get him out of here," another shark said. 

"Stay calm. We don't want to arouse any suspicion or to drag the enemy into our net. Aki, how many are chasing them?" 

"Only two, Major." 

"We need to shake them off before we can evacuate them. Natsuya, 150 meters ahead and there's a manhole on your left. Throw the corpse and then Nao if he can't go down." Major ordered. 

Haru remembered the HQ had been moved to an old subway station, maybe this was a shortcut to join the base quicker. His instincts were proven correct once more, as Major told him there were few people left who knew about the old Tokyo's subway plans. 

"We need to get him to the Tokyo station." Major said. "Aki, where are they?" 

"In between Mitsukoshimae and Nihonbashi on the G way." 

"Good, they're already close." 

Natsuya managed to snick out of his pursuers' visions and took off the manhole cover from its place. Then, they lost visual contact. 

"Since there's no more camera in the subway we've placed infrared captors near the base," Major told Haru. "We should be able to find them soon."  

As a rookie, everything was new to him. The names, the technology, the Sharks – he didn't even have his jacket yet. That's maybe why he could feel, when eyes weren't on the screen looking for his instructor's figure, people sending him daggers at the back of his head. It was like a breath of fresh air to find out he could still learn something new when he felt so old. 

After a long minute of dreadful silence, a red dot appeared on Major's screen, in the middle of the map of the subway. She had found them, and finally Haru for the very first time heard Natsuya's voice. 

_'Nao's badly hurt, this guy shot him before I got time to neutralize him.'_  

"Is he dead?" Major inquired. 

_'Affirmative. I need an escape route as soon as possible.'_  

Haru knew that voice. He'd already heard it before, a couple of hundred years ago. 

"Sam, grab the engine and drive to Door F." 

_'Door F? You're not nice today, Major Tanaka.'_  

A shark from the back of the room left without any comment.  

"What is door F?" Haru whispered into Aki's ear while Major was busy checking the red dot's path on her screen. Aki only grimaced. It looked like nothing good, only painful. 

Haru thought, as the rescue mission was going on in dreadful silence, that the other Sharks' members were too scared and worried to move a finger, and that it was why they remained immobile with him in the room. He found out soon that he was, in fact, the only one who had no idea of what to do. Their stillness was just a sign of their confidence and trust concerning the Major. They were waiting for orders, and none would ever imagine to move without her consent, because that was probably the best thing to do to save their comrades. He still had so much to learn. 

"They've made it!" Major said loudly when she lost the red dot.  

Major then asked Aki and Haru to follow her, and some other Sharks took their path as well. When they finally reached 'door F', Haru realized it was an air vent from the ceiling, which lay about 10 meters above their heads. Natsuya was panting and had visibly broken his arm in the fall.  

"Why Door F?" He asked again. 

Major took Nao's body into her arms; he was unconscious and his white robe was drenched with his blood. "It's the nearest door from the nursery." 

 

The hours they spent outside the white door of the nursery were the longest Haru had experienced in a very long time. It was also at this moment that he learned Major's first job, which he could have never guessed if he hadn't been told by Aki. 

He occasionally felt Natsuya sending him hidden looks but chose to ignore them. After all, he was feeling the same as he; his face was far from being unfamiliar to him and this fact should call Natsuya out as much as himself. 

Still wearing her white blouse, mask and gloves, Major got out of the room, with every pair of eyes set on Natsuya’s face. "He'll make it." She said, and as soon as the words left her lips the air became breathable again. "Will you let me take care of your arm now?" 

He didn't say anything, or try to argue; but Natsuya had the look of a child who refused to reckon he'd been wrong painted on his face. 

 

 

"Who's going to instruct me then?" Haru asked when they went to lunch with Aki – to Haru's great surprise, they ate in the CIRO cafeteria with all the other members; he knew it because he saw Rin from the corner of his eyes, and was 100% sure Rin had seen him too and chose to sit on the exact opposite end of the room. 

"Dunno," Aki said with her mouth full of food. "Natsuya really is the best. He instructed me when I started. I would do it willingly but my shoulder was wounded during the last mission." 

Haru looked behind his back, "Are you sure we can talk about it here?" he whispered. 

Aki suddenly stopped eating, her skin looked paler than before. "You're probably right," she whispered back. "Let's talk about other common and boring things while we're here." 

They spent lunch time talking about this and that – it was mostly Aki, Haru contented himself with her stories. He found the part where she talked about Sousuke and Rin, somehow, more interesting than the rest of her childhood misadventures.  

Speaking of the devil, a flash of red itched the corner of his eyes, and Haru mindlessly stole a glance or two before Rin's silhouette vanished from the cafeteria. When he looked at Aki again, she was staring at him intensely with a sort of timid smile, as if she had caught something she wasn't supposed to. Haru mumbled bromides before pretending he needed some fresh air. It's not like Aki had caught anything, since there was nothing to catch. 

_'Hey, pretty face.'_  

His e-watch vibrated, announcing a new transmission from Major. 

_'Sorry for the little mishap earlier, your instructor is now ready. Welcome to Hell.'_  

He then heard her laughing shadily.  

 

 

"It's not the first time we meet, that I am certain." Natsuya first told him when he came back to the base. His arm looked to be fine now – which still remained mysterious to Haru – and his face suffered from minor scratches that had required dozens of stiches, nothing more. It seemed a little price for the cause.  

"I agree. It was-" 

"I don't want to know," Natsuya cut him. "It will get more complicated if you tell me who you were in my previous lives. I can't remember much, and I like it to be this way, if you don't mind." 

Whether he wanted to admit it to himself or not, it was the first time Haru met someone he already knew from his previous lives and he had, for a couple of hours, been excited at the prospective discussions they would have had about it. As Natsuya had asked, Haru kept his memories to himself. 

"Before you start, there's something you need to see." Major told them. 

They walked to the very first room Haru had set foot on when he came here. It was called the locker room. There, he found his name written on the last locker on the left. 

"Open it." Natsuya told him. 

"I don't need a key?" 

"Your fingerprints will do." Major replied. 

There wasn't much in it, but time would leave him opportunities to fill it up. There was a helmet like those he had seen in the meeting office where Yamazaki made him sign his contract, a basic old-fashioned gun, a laser one to its right and, most eminently, shining in the dark of the locker room, a red Shark embroiled on a leather jacket. 

Haru was in awe. It kind of looked unreal and sacred, not what he had expected in the beginning. 

"It's a privilege to own this. From the moment you'll put it on you'll be a real Shark." 

Haru's fingers brushed the fabric, he was tempted to put it on right now but Natsuya's voice stopped him once more. "You still have to prove your worth. Come with me." 

Major saluted them as they left her near her computer – she still had that gloomy kind of smile when she waved at Haru and he didn't really like it for some reason. 

Natsuya lead him to another wing of the base he had never been to yet. They took another corridor and eventually they stopped in front of the biggest door of the place. The whole room was white, so much so that it dazzled Haru for a couple of seconds when Natsuya seemed to be unaffected. He walked to the middle where an unique machine lay, composed of a white levitating seat that looked as comfortable as his bed and a helmet with a black visor that Haru guessed was more of a virtual reality screen. He guessed it right. 

Natsuya tapped on the white seat. "This is what we call 'VTI', for virtual training improvement. This little wonder was used by the army at the end of the 21th century to quickly form soldiers when World War III broke out. It costed too much money so they abandoned the project. We found it a couple of years ago and thanks to our best engineer, we've improved it to reply to Jivas' conditions. Depending on your reaction we'll know exactly what kind of things you've learned in your previous lives and what is still unknown. It helps us to find the more suitable jobs for you here at the agency." 

"I'm not good at sports in general," Haru mumbled. 

"Yeah, I can see that," Natsuya teased. Haru knew he didn't mean to sound harmful, but the remark left a bitter taste in his mouth. 

"Tanaka told me you weren't like Aki and me, that you were the same type as-" 

"Who's Tanaka?" Haru asked. 

"Oh, Major Tanaka. I just hate calling her Major, so when she's not around I just call her first name." 

Natsuya took the helmet and motioned Haru to come closer. He was about to sit down when Natsuya stopped him. He fixed the helmet onto Haru's head before saying, without warning:  

"So Haru, let's see how fast you can run." 

 

[*]

 

 

At the end of the day the answer was irrevocable. Haru was allergic to running.  

The moment Natsuya put the goggles on his head, Haru was shot out into a jungle forest with a giant lion chasing him. He didn’t last more than a couple of seconds. When the beast bit his throat, everything went white and he was back in the Sharks’ training room. He was breathless. He could feel his muscles ache when he hadn’t actually moved at all. 

Natsuya was as in his souvenir, cheerful and gifted with infinite patience. At the end of the day they had figured out what was from the start an evidence. Haru needed at least a whole month of intense training before being useful on the field – or at least, not a danger for himself and the rest of the Sharks. There were things he was good at, things he remembered having mastered in the past such as Kendo and archery. This particular moment when he held the arc in his hands had been revivifying. The VTI brought him to a endless field with tall grass tickling his bare knees. Haru was dressed as in the 18th century in Japan, petrichor filled his nostrils and his ears could catch the distant noise of a deer ruminating. Haru stretched his bow. There was a cool breeze but he aimed and loosened the arrow without any hesitation. The arrow ended up exactly where he had decided, and the next ones followed that principle. 

In between sessions of pure torture – merely combat and work ups, races and tailing simulations – there had been a revelation, the kind of one which changed the way Haru saw the world. 

The VTI brought him to a swimming pool. 

"I wondered if you hadn’t been a dolphin in one if your lives." Natsuya joked at some point. 

Haru didn’t speak. He just swam, back and forth, for hours. Swimming felt as natural as breathing for him. His legs swung in the water, his blue eyes scrutinized the bottom of the pool to find some fish and corals, and the next moment he realized he wasn't in a pool anymore, but in the ocean. The lost Great Barrier Reef was there, magnificent. How could he have forgotten about all this? Water was more important than air or food to him, it had always been! 

"The VTI used its own data but also your memories to create the ideal training ground," Natsuya explained. "So, what do you think about that?" 

"Amazing." 

"Ha, just like I thought. You actually spent four hours of your life swimming." Haru’s eyes widened when he figured out how late it might be – the last bus took off just after midnight. "Don’t worry, it’s not that late. One hour here is 15 minutes of real time. It really is an amazing machine." 

Indeed it was, because it meant that Haru could swim four times longer than he had expected at first. 

They got out of the training room. Natsuya then announced their programme for the next weeks. Major had been right from the very beginning, it was going to be tough. 

 

Haru walked with his instructor to the nursery. "How is your arm?" He asked, ashamed to inquire so late. 

"It’ll be fine, I’ve seen worse." He gave Haru a smile. "Don’t take your training lightly or this might happen to you too." 

A moment later Haru understood that Natsuya wasn’t going to the nursery to have his arm checked, but to see the man he had saved this morning. In fact there were three other Sharks at the man’s bedside. There was also Aki who was having her shoulder bandaged. Feeling a little bit out of place, Haru sat next to her, not really knowing what to do. 

"How was your first day?" Aki asked softly. 

"Everything hurts. I’ve discovered new muscles I would have never imagined the existence of before." 

She simply smiled brighter at what she mistook for a trait of humour. She probably took his word for sarcasm but it was none of that. Haru really felt like every inch of his body was being crushed by a train. 

"I wonder if I should be here." He said after a moment. Aki stared at him as if he’d just said he was a new kind of alien. "I mean, I know now that I’m a Jiva and that I’m way older than you all are, but does it really means that my place lays by your side?" 

Haru’s eyes were lost, gazing only at Nao’s form under the white sheets. From where he stood, the man looked dead. 

"Everyone has their own place and duty," Aki explained. "Nao is not the physical type, just like you, but he’s got experience. He was working for the American government as an infiltrator in the SS during the second World War, and he helped to catch Hitler before he commit suicide. He’s really good, someone must have uncovered him." 

"He was dressed as a monk. Was he infiltrating a monastery?" 

Aki silenced him with a look that spoke better than a thousand words. This was confidential, for now at least. Haru needed to prove his worth to gain the Sharks’ trust. 

"We should go," she said. "Are you going back by the front door?" 

Haru nodded, not knowing there were other ways to get out of here. Since Aki didn’t mention anything he guessed it was also something he would need to acquire, or to find out on his own. 

He followed blindly in Aki’s hasty steps in the CIRO office. It was already 10 PM, and yet she stopped before the entrance, in front of the CIRO inner fitness centre. 

"Aren’t you hurt?" Was she going to exercise with her wounded shoulder? 

Aki shrugged. "I’m just doing my jogging. Moreover there’s no network at the base and my mom will kill me if I don’t call her right now." 

There were still CIRO’s employees working out even at this late hour, a concept Haru could hardly conceive. As Haru looked at the different types of machines, Aki got on a treadmill and put a cap with a screen-visor on her head. She took wireless headphones and put them on her ears. When she started running the face of a woman appeared on her screen. 

"Hello mom! Yeah, I know it’s late…" 

Haru was sitting on a bench, and like a cow watching the trains pass by, he lazily studied this new environment he barely understood. He didn’t belong here. If it weren’t for Makoto and the twins, he would have never put a foot inside such a place. All this technology, all this violence, all this- 

Just as he was thinking how much he missed his old house and Makoto’s company, Haru caught Rin’s silhouette at the back of the room. He was running. Pearls of sweats fell from his face onto his torso, watering his black top. He didn’t look like the others. There was a strong determination in his eyes, something bigger than him, an unwavering goal that kept him running at a pretty fast rhythm. Rin would have escaped the giant lion, probably. He would have been the one chasing the beast and not the opposite; that’s all Haru could think of when he witnessed his arms swinging energetically. But there wasn’t any lion behind him, so what was making Rin run so fast? 

Before he knew it, Haru took place on the treadmill next to Rin’s, forgetting the pain, forgetting the late hour, forgetting he didn’t even know how these machines worked – forgetting he hated running. 

"Hi," he mumbled clumsily. Rin frowned when he eventually saw him, but his speed wasn’t affected by his new neighbour. Haru fingers groped around the screen to start the treadmill with no success. Pissed, surely, Rin showed Haru how to put it on without decreasing his speed, and then his eyes went back far ahead, lost on the wall or even further. Haru thanked him quietly and started running. But the speed chosen by Rin was clearly too fast for Haru’s tired legs, and only a couple of strides after he unceremoniously fell off his treadmill.  

Rin took off his headphones and got off as well. "You okay?" 

"Yes," Haru lied, but it wasn't like he was going to admit it. He didn’t quite know what hurt the most yet, his knee or his pride. 

Rin then programmed the treadmill's speed to be slower so that Haru could run. He looked like he wanted to say something but didn’t know where to start. The last time Haru had seen him he had been yelling at Sousuke, on the verge of tears. But now he looked calm, perhaps a little bit ashamed even. Haru recognized at long last the man he had met at the Irish pub. 

They should probably talk about that. The tension between them came from various sources but Sousuke’s manoeuvre and the role Haru played in it took a great part, and it had the advantage of being fixable. Yet Haru knew there was also something else lying under the surface, and had the delicate attention to wait for Rin to start the conversation and not to brusque him. And so he waited, and so he ran. 

11 PM came quicker than expected and Rin was still running regular as a clockwork, so much so that if Haru hadn’t already seen him naked he could have mistaken him for a cyborg. Haru stopped the treadmill and took his stuff, not missing the look Rin gave him as he left his vision. He wanted to say goodbye to Aki too, but she was nowhere in sight. 

 

 

Haru arrived just in time for the last bus. It was nearly midnight and there were only a few people already sitting at the back. Haru got in, decided he would be okay with a seat at the front but against the window, when fate decided otherwise. 

"Nanase Haruka, run out credit. Please recharge before using the general transport." 

 Shit. _Shit_ _Shit_ _Shit_ _._  

There was a dispenser just next to the elevator, and of course it was one of those nights when Haru put his credit card in the wrong pocket and couldn’t find it in time. When finally he payed for 10 000 credits the last bus was already gone. 

He took out his phone, there were 5 missed calls and texts from Makoto. He was worried, despite the hour Haru called him back. 

_'Where are you???'_ He heard from the other end of his phone. 

"Work. I missed the last bus." 

_'What? But where are you going to spend the night?'_  

Haru knew his best friend like the back of his hand. He knew that now, Makoto was getting ready to drive his old motorcycle all the way here to bring him back home, meaning he would sleep only a couple of hours before going to work. 

"I’m staying at a friend's." 

_'…a friend ?'_  

"Yes. Don’t worry about me. Go back to sleep, everything is alright." 

He hung up before Makoto could object. 

 

 

"Nanase Haruka, 9850 credits left." 

Haru went back to the CIRO building hoping to find a friendly face – Aki was his first choice -  to ask for hospitality for the night. 

Unfortunately the CIRO lights were all out the moment he came back. Haru searched in vain for an open room or a at least a comfortable sofa to spend the night. He thought of coming back to the Sharks’ base but in his luck he got lost, and when he eventually found Sousuke’s office the door was locked.  

"What are you still doing here?" 

Haru felt relieved to hear a human voice until he found who it belonged to. Rin was still wearing his sports outfit, and he held in his hand a card that looked like a pass to Haru’s salvation. If he could opened Sousuke’s door… 

"I missed the last bus." 

"Oh. How inconvenient. How are you going to make it home? Do you need a ride?" Rin offered. 

"Thanks, but I live in the 6th district." 

Rin grimaced. After the war and constant bombing, the town’s map had been redrawn to what they knew today. The hyper centre was formed by the Nest and the Underground, and what remained of the town was divided in districts and suburbs. The sixth, where Haru and Makoto lived, was poor and far from everything unless you owned a mean of transport, a luxury Haru didn’t have – he stubbornly refused to pass a license anyway.  

"Is that a swipe card?" 

Rin looked at the card in his hand, "Yeah, Sousuke gave it to me so I could use the gymnasium as much as I like. But it’s a secret, I’m not supposed to own this." 

Speaking of secret, Haru then suddenly realised it was stupid to think that Rin would nicely open up Sousuke’s door for him, since he couldn’t even tell him about the Sharks and the base, and that he had no reason to enter Rin’s boss’ office. The other solution would be to knock him out and steal the pass, or to make him drink coffee; but somehow Haru couldn’t see him gaining the upper hand on Rin tonight. 

"So you just take the bus every morning and every evening after work?" 

Haru nodded, too ashamed to admit it was his first regular job. 

"But when…do you start working?" 

"Well, I don’t have an exact timeline, but the sooner the better." 

Haru thought arriving at 8 AM would do it, but since he was looking forward to spending as much time as he could in the pool, maybe 7 AM would be a better time. This would mean taking the first bus like last time, and getting up every day at 5:30 AM. 

He could probably make it, maybe. 

"They didn’t give you a room?" Rin asked.  

He looked kind of scandalised, and Haru almost found him cute for that. But wait a minute…Rin shouldn’t be the one feeling offended, it should be him! 

"I didn’t even think about it," he admitted.  

Rin sighed at Haru’s blatant naivety. "Look, I have an idea. I still owe you some apologies for my odd behaviour. And you obviously need a bed closer to your former one. I live in the Nest, you couldn’t be closer to there. I have a spare room, you can use it tonight if you want to." 

Pleasantly surprised by Rin’s generosity,  Haru was more than happy to have no other choice left but to accept to justify his prompt agreement.  

 

[*]

 

 

It was weird that even if he had already been there, Haru didn’t recognise the path they took or the hallway at all when they eventually reached Rin’s place. First, the lights were on this time. Second, since they came from the Nest and not from the Underground, the path they took had been completely different. Haru vaguely remembered where Rin’s bedroom was but that was it.  

"I’m home." Rin announced. Haru frowned, he thought Rin was living alone. 

His assumptions were proven right when he heard no reply. 

"Put your coat here," Rin said as he opened a closet. "Let me show you around the place." 

Rin’s home was quite big compared to Makoto’s. Haru learned the government lent it to him when he had joined CIRO after he caught an international hacker that they were having trouble with. That’s how he had accessed, so young, such a high level of responsibilities. And Haru thought it was just because he was Yamazaki's friend… 

There was a big dining room and on its left, a ridiculously small open kitchen. The table was small as well, but Haru guessed it was enough for one. The TV and the sofa didn’t look very expensive and judging by the dust on the screen, Haru doubted Rin made use of it very often.  

Rin brought him directly to the essential, skipping his bedroom and his office. There was only one bathroom provided with a bathtub. Haru let out a sigh of relief. 

"This will be your room for tonight," Rin said as he opened the last door. 

The door itself was made of old wood, it didn’t look like the others at all. Haru could also see that there used to be a plaque there, because there was a former that appeared lighter than the colour of the wood. It looked like the kind of plaque with a name on it that you put on a child’s bedroom door. 

"It only has a simple bed and it might be a bit hard but I guess it’s better than nothing. Ha, I forgot to give you some pyjamas. Wait here, and don’t touch anything before I get back, okay?" 

Haru vaguely mumbled a reply since his eyes were hypnotised by the room's atmosphere. There was so much nostalgia spreading through the walls, the bed, the furniture. Every plushy seemed to have a story of its own. There was a teddy bear with a pink ribbon around its neck. When Haru touched it he had flashbacks of its life with its previous owners. Did Rin have children already? Feelings of joy and sadness rushed through him, he felt like memories from the things in the room talked to him. Was this part of his Jiva's capacities? Yamazaki said something about how he was more sensitive to his environment…but it was the first time something of the sort happened to him. Maybe the room was special. Maybe it had a heavy history and that was why Haru could feel it. 

Haru was about to touch the small dolphin on the night table when he saw a red dot flickering on top of the bed. Curious, he pushed it. 

Afterward Haru realised he probably shouldn’t have. 

Below the red dot a part of the wall slid on its side and revealed a computer screen. There was an inscription written in old Japanese symbols and the form of a hand on it.  

"Identification." A robotic voice ordered.  

Hesitantly, Haru put his hand on the screen. His fingerprints were scanned and his name appeared on the screen. Then, the red dot dissembled from the wall to reveal its real form. It looked like a moving security camera, with a round frame and an expressive red eye. The camera scanned Haru’s face as well. Then, the screen flickered in red. It did not announce anything good. 

"Alert, code red, intruder in the sanctuary." 

An alarm screeched loudly in Rin’s apartment. Haru tried to push the camera back in the wall, but to his surprised it defended itself by spreading electricity through Haru’s body. He fell on the ground the moment Rin entered the chaos with a pair of pyjamas in his arms. 

"False alert, I’m fine! For fuck's sake Haru, what don’t you understand in ‘don’t touch a thing'?" 

Rin was out of himself, but mostly out of worry. When he was sure Haru was unharmed, his head turned to the little camera. 

"Hello, master." 

"Go back into sleep mode Sakura. Haruka is our guest tonight." 

"Should I add him to the authorised persons’ list then?" 

"If you want!" 

"No need to be rude, master. Goodnight master." 

As quickly as it had appeared, the screen hid behind the wall again, and the camera became an inoffensive red dot. 

Rin handed the pyjamas to Haru. "This is why I told you not to touch anything." 

"What was that?" Haru asked, still shocked by the electrocution. 

Rin helped him sit on the bed. He had been right, the mattress was hard, as if he hadn’t been used in years. "Remember the file you stole from me a couple of days ago?" Haru nodded weakly. "It was about that, a project called 'Sakura'. Two years ago the Japanese government started to elaborate a program to speculate in the stock markets all around the world to get more money. They found a perfect algorithm including the risks and gains of financial transaction, but the results didn't fulfil their expectations, so they gave the AI some of the humans traits so it can try to predict the unpredictable."  

"It sounds like a futurist catastrophe movie." Haru commented. 

Rin gave him a shy smile. "Long story short, let's say that the government abandoned the idea after a media and diplomatic scandal and that I kind of stole the data and changed some of the basics. It's now only a super AI that I use as a security agent as well as a thinking super computer which is fond of stock exchange. It’s useful when you don’t have time to do your online shopping, trust me."  

Rin got up from the bed and went to the door frame. "By the way, Sakura has an entry in every room, so if you have any question while I’m not here such as where the spoons are or why there's no milk left in the fridge, you can ask her." 

"That’s what you were talking to when you came home." Haru said. 

"Well, yeah," Rin admitted, a bit embarrassed. "It helps a bit. I feel less lonely since I have her."  

"Is it why you call it ‘her’?" 

Words some times could hurt more efficiently than any advanced weapon. Haru felt, as he observed mixed feelings showing up on his host’s face, that Rin was the kind of human who would be more likely wounded by misplaced words than by a gun. And he seemed to have noticed this frail as well, because the moment Haru witnessed his fragility Rin replaced it the next second with a charming smile. 

"Oh, wait a bit, you’ll see if at the end of your stay I’ll be the only one calling ‘it’ her." 

Rin left him alone after that. He turned off the lights and closed the door. Haru checked his e-watch before tugging in the sheets. He had a message from Natsuya. They’d start at 7 AM tomorrow. Rin’s offer was a real benediction. If only he could stay here for more than one night. If only he could stay here as long as he needed to elucidate the mystery surrounding Rin and his altered memories. If only… 

If only Sakura’s eye could stop flickering! It got on his nerves and prevented him from sleeping. 

Haru was about to stick a cloth on the red light to lessen its brightness, but as soon as the thought came to his mind, the red dot vanished from the wall.  

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I thought I would post it for Sakurathon hahaha what a dreamy idea..  
> Hope you liked it, that you understood most of it, not everything cause otherwise there's no mystery...and it gets boring...  
> I'm happy that we get to see more Rin because there's so much to say about him !
> 
> See ya soon o/ 
> 
> (I'll probably post some information about the fic and characters, also drawing of concept on my blog if you're interested let me know)


	5. The Engineer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At long last Haruka met Alpha 08...or so he believed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a little bit in a hurry tonight so I'll had character description and playlist later.  
> The song at the begining is 'On the Sunny side of the street' by Judy Garland.

Glossary

**Sakura** : an AI created by the Japanse gouvernment for illegal lucrative means, saved by Rin before it got destroyed. 

**Section 6** : a section ran by the Minister of Defense within the CIRO walls. This is where Alpha 08 is kept for the moment. No links with the Sharks.

 

Starting with

**Nao Serizawa :** Natsuya's partner, a valuable member of the Sharks. Got injured during his last mission.

 **Nagisa Hazuki :** an engineer working in section 6.

 

[Chapter playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLop3Dm7-fjPUkbJiQX2PdQhrQh7mwCufF)

 

 

## Chapter 5 : The Engineer

* * *

 

 

Haru woke up twice this morning. The first time the noise of water running in the bathroom brought him memories of times spent in the swimming pool. He got up and stumbled to the kitchen. It was still dark outside, considering it was only 5 AM.

Rin was drinking an espresso, his bottom resting on the kitchen counter's surface. "Go back to sleep," he whispered, something Haru did more than willingly. He was in fact so tired, that when he woke up for the second time he wondered if it had been a dream.

This time it was because there was someone singing, a woman. Haru took a look on his e-watch, it was 6:30 AM. He got dressed quickly in his yesterday's clothes and since he didn't have time to take a bath, he skipped the bathroom to go directly to the kitchen again. He almost thought he would see Rin there again, but Rin was long gone. He had left a note on the fridge – there were a lot of yellow post-its on the fridge actually, which was something weird because who the hell still used paper post-its - written with his handwriting.

'Sorry, there's no more milk. Tell Sakura to lock the door when you leave. See you later?'

Haru reread the last three words as if there were written in a foreign language. ‘See you later,' he'd written. Did that mean Rin wanted to see him today or that he assumed they would necesseraly meet at least in the cafeteria or that he wanted him to stay another night? Not really knowing why yet, Haru really felt like he needed to stay a little longer, his will having nothing to do with his physical attraction to the owner of the place. The place was like a giant puzzle made with a unique mechanism, and leaving without understanding how it worked just sounded frustrating.

There was now a different song playing in the apartment. Haru opened the fridge, and almost gasped when he saw what was resting inside.

"Mackerel!" He whispered.

There was also toast on a place next to the sink. They were still hot. Rin couldn't have made them, he took off too early for that. Who had done this? Was there someone else here?

"...Sakura?" Haru called, unsure – it was his first time talking to AI using a girl's name. "Sakura, are you here?"

As he grew silent and waited for any kind of answer, Haru's ears caught a voice humming the song's melody. As he stepped into the living room towards Rin's bedroom, the voice got clearer. '…to walk in the shades of my blues on parade, but now I'm not afraid...troubles over, I crossed over...'

It was without a doubt Sakura's robotic voice, singing an old tune from the 1930's. As Haru entered Rin's room, he almost tripped over his own feet. What he had seen yesterday had just been a small part of Sakura, it had just merely been an eye. If what Rin told him yesterday was true and that there was a part of Sakura in every room, then the robot might be like an octopus, and Haru was now standing in front of its head. Sakura 'body' was round and as big as a watermelon, maybe even more so – 35 cm in diameter no less – with a red eye in the middle of its grey layout. Small sticks working as arms and hands extending from its spherical frame were cleaning Rin's bed. Sakura was singing while doing housework; the thought destabilized Haru's archetype on AI as a robot, but not in a bad way.

"Hello," he said again.

The AI hadn't heard Haru coming in, because it dropped Rin's cushion onto the ground and almost jumped in surprise. The singing stopped, and Sakura's big eye came closer to his head – its eye was just as big as Haru's face. The red dot scanned Haru's face and flicked until eventually, Sakura recognized him.

"Haruka Nanase, listed as guest. Good morning! How was your breakfast?"

"I didn't eat yet, I-"

"Why?"

Sakura almost sounded angry – at least, its eye felt unhappy about what Haru had just said – so that Haru concluded, dumbfounded, that Sakura was the one who cooked him breakfast after all. Thinking about what had Rin told him the night before, it might as well have bought the mackerel.

"Thank you," Haru said, to which the eye seemed to soften. "I heard someone singing so I came closer. I really like mackerel."

"I know that. I've studied your debit card data." Haru took a step back. "It seems you also like to go in that place called the Coffeetachi. Is the coffee good there? Master keeps on complaining about it...maybe I don't do it well enough. Maybe it's the machine? I should buy a new one, there's a sale on Nespresso machines tomorrow."

"...Yeah, it's fine, I guess. My friend owns the place."

"So you're friends with Tachibana Makoto."

Sakura directed it’s red eye behind Haru’s back, and, bit by curiosity, he couldn’t help but turn around. Another thing Haru had missed during his first and only stay in Rin's bedroom was the 180° screens circling his bed. There was a big one in the middle and two smaller ones, closing the angles. Sakura displayed on them every record it could find on Makoto – even on the twins, their schools, and on their dietary routine.

"Ah, they don't eat enough meat. You know little humans can't grow up well if they don't eat meat. I could send them beef. Or mackerel if you want to." "How could you ever do that?" Haru exclaimed, forgetting he was late for his second day of work already.

"I have their addresses, which is also your address, and I have your bank account's information-"

"No, no, don't do it. Don't buy anything with my account without asking," Haru threatened.

How could Rin live with this machine? It was totally crazy and seemed to have a love for no-holds-barred shopping sprees!

Sakura seemed to stop working for a minute. It was still in the middle of the room. "Oh," it said, as if suddenly having understandood something important. "Do you want me to delete your bank account details then? It's really practical for online shopping, you know."

"I don't think you'll need it. I'm leaving this morning."

"Really?"

It sounded so surprised and disappointed that Haru grew quickly fond of this strange robot. Yet it would never be as sorry as him to leave the place.

"I am so sorry that we didn't have a proper first meeting. Let me introduce myself. My name is AIBAXTZ – 2502. I am an artificial intelligence program created by the government to speculate on the Japan Exchange Group and Wall Street. Unfortunately, I was hacked while on service and all my information were revealed to the public. It was so humiliating! I was so ashamed! But Rin saved me...Master found the hacker, and when the government wanted to destroy me he stole my data and gave me a new name and function. You may call me Sakura now."

Now that he heard Sakura's story, Haru realized he'd heard it last year. He didn't usually pay attention to what was happening around him but that time half of the government had had to resign, it had made quite a racket.

"My name is Haruka. But you can call me Haru."

Sakura laughed. "I know all that, I know for sure. You have no idea of how much I already know about you."

A drop of cold sweat ran down his back as he thought about all the things he bought with his debit card and the places he went. It was better not to think about what Sakura might know or understand with this information.

While eating his delicious breakfast, Haru wondered if Rin used Sakura's capacities in some illegal ways, because it was something he would definitely do.

"Lock the door behind me." Haru said when he left.

"Fine, Haru. I am sure we will meet again. Goodbye."

No matter how short their encounter had been, Haru hoped that he would talk to the round robot again as well – and to its Master.

 

 

[*]

 

Natsuya was waiting for him in the training room. "We have a meeting at noon, so we don't have time to waste chatting or swimming today."

"How is your arm?" Haru asked first and for all.

Natsuya smiled, "Could have been worse."

Haru put the VTI helmet on his head and was shot out in a fencing training room. He wasn't alone this time, Natsuya had put a spare helmet on and was now facing him.

"En garde!" Natsuya said, and he was his challenger for the first part of the day.

Noon came very quickly as Haru realized he had always been good with a sword and really enjoyed practicing. Major was waiting for them outside the training room.

"How is it going?" she asked Natsuya.

"As expected," he replied, which meant not fast enough, or at least that's what Haru guessed from the look Major gave him.

 

"Our engineer finally took Alpha 08's core out of its body," Major announced as they took a different path to get out of HQ. "The body is placed in the most secured place in the whole Unit. Not every Shark can get there. Your fingerprints will allow you to get in, of course, but you must always go alone, understood?"

Haru nodded. Major's words were always clear and precise.

She stopped before a immense dark green door. Haru had no idea of where they were. The feeling of the room before them felt different from the ones in CIRO or HQ; it was as if they had travelled to a very different place in a very short amount of time. Major put her head against the screen and her hands inside two holes that were on the door. Both her eyes and her hands were scanned simultaneously.

"This is the best security control in the whole country," Natsuya whispered. "There's secret technology for the eye scanning; with the coming of eye traffic we had to be very cautious..."

They followed a yellow line printed on the corridor behind the door, and ended in what, to Haru's naïve eyes, looked like a modern lab.Against the wall there were mathematic formulas even his experienced eyes didn’t understand, and mechanics and experimental tools were scattered on the tables. It looked like the owner of the place had gone elsewhere in a hurry and left his stuff lying around in the middle of his work.

But this fact didn’t catch much of Haru’s attention, because what stroke him and stole his sight was resting right in front of them, sitting on a comfortable seat. At first he thought it was the engineer Major told them about a little bit earlier, but then Haru saw a little detail, a wire connecting the person’s neck to the back of the seat. It was not a person, it was a cyborg.

At last, Haru finally met Alpha 08.

It definitely didn’t match Haru's expectations. From what he had gathered from Aki’s words, he would have expected to see a killer’s face. Instead, Alpha 08 had the face of a baby angel. Its blond curls tickled the base of its synthetic neck, with its eyes closed and judging by its height and silhouette Haru wouldn’t have mistaken it for any more than fourteen years old if it were human. Where did they hide the core? Was it still inside the cyborg's body, under its yellow shirt?

"It seems we’re a little bit early," Natsuya said to Major, who only gazed at her watch in reply.

Haru walked towards Alpha 08 until he was at arm's reach to it. From where he stood, there was no way to say by looking at its face that it wasn’t a human simply resting on the seat.

"Five more seconds." Major declared.

Haru’s fingertips brushed against the robot’s skin. It was so cold.

"Three, two, one…"

His fingers were about to brush past its cheekbone when Alpha 08 opened its purple eyes. Taken by surprise, Haru took a step back and stumbled on Natsuya's foot – he almost tripped over it and fell. Bemused, he witnessed as the cyborg took off its wire from its neck and how Major and Natsuya let it do it, when it tried to murdered Aki! how could they let it move without reacting? It could still be dangerous!

Haru glanced at Major, who was already looking at him with one of her smiles that only she could give. "I like when they're ignorant. They always seem so surprised," she said, still looking at him when her words were visibly not for him but about him.

"You’re witty as always, dear aunt."

Haru almost choked; he sought in the eyes of his mentor a sign that what he had heard was ridiculous, but Natsuya only nodded slowly with a wary smile, indicating that it was indeed the truth and how sorry he was that Haru had to learn it that way.

"Let me introduce you to my young nephew, who is also the best cyber engineer in the whole country."

"Hello!" The engineer said. "I’m Hazuki Nagisa."

Haru shook his hand. He had been so surprised that he forgot to introduce himself.

"Contrary to what you might think and what my aunt told you, I’m not the best engineer and I’m not that young, but almost 34."

"Okay," Haru said. Why not? After all, he himself looked 21 but was more than a thousand years old.

 

Nagisa Hazuki was born in a family dedicated to cyber technology. His mother had worked here, where she had met his father, and three of his sisters were still working here. His uncle had been, according his words, a pioneer in the making of cyborgs. Unfortunately for Nagisa, he had been cursed with a genetic disease that almost took his life at a very young age.

"Nagisa was the first child to benefit from cyber transplantation," Major told them.

"How does it work?" Haru inquired.

"When I was five and the doctors ran out off options, my parents decided to listen to my uncle’s weirdest idea," Nagisa told him. "They used a heart made with cyborgs’ technology and used the same surgery and the same treatment with it."

At first they changed his heart multiple times as he grew up so that the battery never really died. With time and age, the immunosuppressive treatment got rid of his kidneys and liver so that they needed to be replaced as well. With time, incidents at the lab involving chemical products had damaged him stomach, as well as his skin.

"Nagisa is the only hybrid to ever be!" His aunt claimed proudly. "Half human, half cyborg."

And Haru thought he was the weirdest thing alive… Life was definitely full of surprises.

 

It was obvious that Alpha 08 couldn’t be kept just like that in the middle of the lab without any protection. Nagisa made them wait and came back a couple of minutes later with two other scientists and a box. The two white-coats left, saluting Major when they passed her. Alpha 08’s body was resting inside the box.

"It looks like its sleeping…" Haru whispered.

The cyber body was completely nude and cut in half at its waist. Alpha 08 had pale skin, short dark hair and seemed more at peace than it was lifeless. There was something very human on its face. It was no wonder why Aki kept on calling it 'her'.

"Impressive, isn’t it? That's the work of a genius, of an artist," Major said.

Haru caught Nagisa staring at his aunt with a hard gaze, and immediately pretended it had never happened.

"Its face isn’t the only thing that was made to resemble a human being. Its core was hidden in its brain, just were the hippocampus should be." Nagisa told them.

Haru frowned. "Usually it's placed in the torso, where the heart should be," Natsuya clarified.

Nagisa pushed just behind Alpha 08’s ears. There was a small click, and then he took off the cyborg’s skull to reveal its deepest secrets. An indefinite numbers of microscopic wires composed the cyborg’s brain, just like neurons for humans. The engineer plunged his fingers in and took something smaller than the latest generation of micro-SD cards Haru had had the chance to see. Nagisa looked at him; he had done his job, he had taken out the core. Now it was time for Haru’s role, his duty to decode Alpha 08’s data.

"I entrust it to you," he said, his eyes at the verge of tears. "Find who did this. Find who stole it from us."

 

 

"So this is the big deal. "

They returned to the base as quickly as they had left. Major was walking ahead reading an e-mail she had just received on her e-watch while Natsuya was mesmerized by the core Haru was preciously holding in his hand. It had been sealed by the people of the lab so that Haru could take it with him, and he was due to restore it integrally as soon as he would find out how to decipher it’s information.

"Do you have an adapter so I can connect it to my computer?" Haru asked him. "I’m afraid I don't have the right size back at my place."

Natsuya took his chin between his thumb and forefinger, "Now that you mention it…"

"We don’t have anything like that here in the Sharks' HQ simply because we aren't allowed to use cyborgs," Major told them after eading all her e-mails. "Go ask Sousuke. He isn’t head of the cyberpolice department for nothing."

At first Haru thought Major was talking to her right arm, to Natsuya. He guessed it wrong. How pleased he was to meet Yamazaki again…

 

[*]

 

He walked to Yamazaki's office to find the door locked. After all, it was 1 PM, everybody was probably eating, and since Yamazaki wasn’t a cyborg he was probably filling his stomach like any other person would do at this hour. Haru headed to the cafeteria where he met Aki having lunch with a friend of hers, but he saw no sign of Yamazaki – and he didn't see Rin either. Haru realized he would have liked to and bit the inside of his cheeks for thinking so.

He retraced his steps, but Yamazaki’s door was still as tightly locked as it was before. The Shark’s Base was also empty when he walked back there.

"Are you lost, Haruka?"

Haru almost jumped when he heard Marine’s soft voice. He hadn’t heard the wheels coming. "I was looking for Natsuya or Major."

"Well, it seems there's no one around."

"Do you know where they are, by any chance?"

"Yes," she said, "And they are busy. They probably don’t need you at the moment. Why don’t you use your free time to go outside? It’s very sunny and you probably haven’t noticed."

"No, I haven’t," Haru confessed.

Marine gave him a kind smile and turned her wheels to her room.

"Wait," he called out to her, thinking about what had happened yesterday in the bedroom. "Can I ask you something?"

"Always! Always, Haruka, always. What is the matter?"

"Can you…can Jiva talk to non-living things?"

He struggled with his words, not knowing how to describe what he had felt when he entered the small bedroom.

"Like...can you feel things when you're in contact with some object or some places?"

"Of course I can," she said, and Haru gasped. "Just as much as you do, as Aki can do. Even Major can, everyone can. It’s called reminiscences. Have you seen the picture of those children crying at Auschwitz?"

Haru nodded.

"When a place has a strong history, the memories remain in stone, wood, in clothes. They live again when someone stands in the place, mostly if it hasn’t been visited in a while or if the memory is very strong. What was it that you felt? Where was it?"

"I can't tell you where, but it was nostalgia, sadness, and sorrow."

Feeling the pain in his voice, Marine rolled in front of him.

"Maybe you have the ability to feel it better than other people? Do you want to talk about it? About what I said two days ago? I thought I would wait until the end of the week, but if you’re disturbed you need to tell me."

Marine had put her hand on his arm to comfort him, and he carefully shrugged it off.

"No, it’s fine." Haru turned his heels and walked to the exit. "The place hadn’t been used in a long time, probably."

 

He was now sitting alone in the cafeteria. People around him were chatting. He wanted them to shut up. He wanted everyone to shut up. He needed to concentrate. His mind was about to burst.

There was so much information to deal with at the same time, and every day he was getting a new ability he would have liked not to be gifted with. Since he came to CIRO, Haru hadn’t had any time to rest. He was sleep deprived, sad, frustrated and stressed. How on earth did he manage to get stuck in this impossible situation? The thrill of his new life gave him a burst of energy he no longer had. Everything was so different from him. Everyone was so different. They believed in his ability to resolve the problem of the cyborg’s core when he had ignored their existence a couple of days ago.

He could escape, for sure. He could steal some information from the Sharks' base and sell it at the black market, and he would easily have enough money to take care of Makoto and the twins for the rest of their lives. He could, but he would not.

Because he was love-stuck. Haru laughed at how appropriate the term was. He had never wanted so dearly to be normal. Not to be a Jiva. Just to be a random soul, ignoring how the world worked and had worked for ages, forgetting about reincarnation. Even if he couldn’t remember his 1248 years wholly, the small parts that were clearly in his mind and the weight of the years burdened his shoulders and his mood deeply. Perhaps if he'd been a normal guy he wouldn’t have this strange attraction to Rin. If he wasn’t so sure that they had already met, maybe he wouldn’t be so affected by his presence, and by how he didn’t act with him as Haru would have liked him to.

Suddenly, evidence struck him. He needed to get home.

 

 

"Hello! Welcome to Coffetachi!"

Haru pushed passed the thin drape that Makoto used as a door and waited for the customer to finish his order. Haru immediately remarked his baldness – this was rather uncommon for someone of his age – and the red dot on his forehead. Before leaving, the man gave something to Makoto. He saluted Haru as he left the place with 4 hot coffees.

"Hi."

"Oh! Haru!"

Makoto left the counter and ran to his friend. "The twins were worried sick! What happened?"

"What I told you. I slept with a friend."

Makoto dropped his arms along his sides.

"At a friend's. Sorry. I’m tired. I’m working for the government."

Adding lots of information to confuse Makoto had always been kind of easy for Haru. His eyes widened and soon best friends were sitting across each other, a strong coffee in front of each.

"You could have told us!"

Haru shrugged. "I thought they were going to kill me at first." Makoto spit out his coffee. "Maybe they're still planning to. My boss is kind of difficult to read. She seems to get pleasure from watching people being lost and miserable."

"To be honest, I'm a bit reassured now. It explains the visit we got this morning."

Haru took a sip. "What visit?"

"A man in a tuxedo came to our place when the sun had just risen. He gave us a letter with your signature saying that you'll be living in the Nest from now on due to your new confidential occupation and that I should give them your vital belongings."

Haru frowned. "They never told me about this." Maybe Major forgot to share this little detail earlier. "Did they say anything else? About the place I'd be staying in?"

If it was big enough maybe Makoto and the twins could move in as well.

"Yes, they said not to worry about mackerel."

Haru set his coffee on the table. That was definitely not something coming from the government. But how could he explain? In hindsight he didn't remember signing anything of the sort in the previous days but knew very well who - or rather what - could have stolen his signature and photoshopped it onto an official document. But then it meant-

"Is everything okay?" Makoto asked.

"Yes." No, it wasn't, or maybe it was, or maybe it was just weird and unexpected. "Yes, it's fine, I just totally forgot about that. I'm sorry everything is so sudden."

"We're going to miss you a lot. But since you're fine and doing an important job for Japan's safety, we don't have a word to say." Makoto took their empty drinks back to the counter. "Plus, you'll come back when it's over. We'll be patient."

"I'll visit you on my days off," Haru said mindlessly, before realizing he might get none.

His eyes fell on a card that was left on the corner. "Is this what the bald man gave you?"

"Oh, you saw that?" Makoto asked. Haru immediately knew he was uneasy about this by the quiver in his voice. He had never been a good liar. "He was a monk, actually."

"That explains the baldness. Is he some kind of neo-Buddhist?"

"I don't know," Makoto lied – Haru always knew when he did. "He just comes here to take coffee back to his sanctuary. He leaves this card everywhere he goes."

There was but a giant eye in a pyramid on the card the monk left. 'Those who seek the TRUTH will get a sight of what Heaven looks like.'

"Actually, I might do the same," Haru said after putting the card back where he found it. "I'll take four coffees."

 

After a heart-breaking goodbye scene, Haru was back in CIRO, but instead of going to Yamazaki's door, he stopped in front of Rin's first.

He took a deep breath. He was still in awe by the fact that Sakura had probably sent a man to his place to take his belongings. The robot really wanted him to stay at Rin's place. When he knocked, no one replied, but soon his ears caught the voice he so dearly wanted to hear.

Rin wasn't alone though. His long time friend Yamazaki was walking behind him like his shadow.

"Haru!"

The enthusiasm Rin showed when he spoke his name somehow lightened the weight of his heart, but the joy he could easily see on Rin's face was quickly hidden and replaced by a polite smile and a firm handshake. "I'd like to apologize for my behaviour the last time we met," he then said, very formally, perhaps too much so because from what Haru observed, Yamazaki wasn't buying a second of it.

It didn't get any better when Haru offered him a cup of coffee and Rin saw the bag slung on his shoulder.

"Oh, so they already gave you a room," Yamazaki remarked, which immediately put Haru in a difficult position. Either he said no and then had to find a good excuse as for why he was carrying the bag, or he confirmed the information and could say farewell to the bedroom at Rin's place.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "Someone from the government came to my place with an official paper, stating that I had to take my stuff."

Haru said this so bluntly that Yamazaki had no choice but to believe him. Very discreetly, Haru tried to steal a glance at Rin to see how he had reacted to the news, and if he had anything to do with all this. He was very surprised to see Rin was already staring back rather intensely.

Rin was still as radiant as Haru could remember, but he had dark circles under his eyes today. He drank his coffee without breaking the eye contact, and Haru found himself incapable of looking away. The red eyes on him captivated his mind, disconnected one by one every neuronal connection in his brain – he had a very clear mental image of what he looked like now that he had seen Alpha 08's insides – and then, as if it was the appropriate moment, Haru remembered what an old friend of his once told him, ages and ages ago. That if someone made eye contact for more than five seconds with another person, it meant they were sexually attracted to them.

"Thank you for the coffee," Sousuke said, but no one seemed to hear his voice.

Indeed it was only the thanks to the hot beverage that Rin finally broke contact. "This coffee is delicious! Where did you get it?"

"My friend owns a coffee shop," Haru told him. "He works in the 2nd district next to the train station."

"The second district?" Sousuke interjected.

Haru nodded.

"You have to give me his address. I'd drive a thousand miles for this coffee. I have some work to do right now, so come to my office later?"

Even from a million miles away Haru could have seen Yamzaki's eyes screwing up at Rin's tendentious proposal.

After Rin disappeared into his office, Yamazaki hastily took Haru by the arm.

"Do you know each other?" He asked as soon as the door was closed.

Haru replied by shaking his head.

"Good. Don’t forget that everything you know about the Sharks and about your mission is strictly confidential. I insist on it, your silence must be golden. Especially with Rin."

"Why?" He couldn't help but ask.

"This is absolutely none of your business."

Sousuke sat back on his seat, ignoring Haru's dark eyes, and opened the secret passage to HQ. "What is it that brings you here? Major, I assume?"

"Who else?"

Haru told him about the core and about the technical problems. Not enchanted in the least by the rather good advancement of the mission, Yamazaki took his chin between his forefinger and thumb and seemed to be thinking, very hard. Somehow Haru doubted that what occupied his mind right now was the cyborg’s core. For the very first time, they might have something in common.

"I’ll see what I can do about it."

Haru took a leave as soon as he decided that his presence wasn't needed anymore – as quickly as possible.

"You aren't going back to your base?" Yamazaki dared him. He knew very well where Haru was going. He didn’t even replied and slammed the door being him.

 

 

Rin was laying on his desk, his empty coffee cup still in his hand when Haru entered. He wasn’t smiling like he usually did. Rin appeared concerned. His eyebrows were furrowed and even from the distance Haru noticed a couple of wrinkles underneath his eyes.

"You okay?"

Rin gave him a tired smile. "I'm fine, I guess."

Haru walked to him with his bag on his shoulder. "You sure?"

Rin sighed. "I didn’t sleep very well last night, that’s all."

"I’m sorry," Haru apoloized immediately.

"Oh, no. It has nothing to do with you, really. I have stuff I need to take care of….but let’s talk about something more important. That coffee was really-"

"Are you the one who sent that man to my place?" He desperately needed to know.

"Haru, if I wanted you to stay I wouldn’t do anything behind your back. It would be your choice, after all."

Disappointment was hard to hide from his face and almost impossible to miss in his blue eyes. Of course Rin wouldn’t have done anything of the sort. He wouldn’t want him to stay after what had happened anyway.

"You don’t have any idea of who could have…?"

"No. Ma- my boss didn’t tell me anything about it this morning. But the man said something weird that could…indicate someone, or rather, something."

Haru told Rin about the mackerel. To his astonishment, Haru realized Rin had considered the eventuality as soon as he had seen the bag.

"Sakura feels lonely these days," he told Haru, "She talks alone and sings a lot – it's kind of getting scary. I think she needs a friend. I told her to create a social media account but she said people were dumb and fascist. I’ve tried to make an AI to meet her expectation but it’s still not enough. She wants to befriend a real human. I’m really sorry about that."

"It's fine. It’s not your fault."

"Of course you can stay a couple of nights until they eventually give you a place to stay. I mean, if you want to... To be honest, it’s kind of nice to talk to another human being after work, so I don't mind. Not at all, on the contrary."

"You’re not mad at me anymore?" Haru asked out of the blue.

Since he had already decided he would stay at Rin’s place, he might as well determine his host's state of mind.

Rin seemed to hesitate. "I, well...I still have a bitter taste in my mouth when I think about that night, but I know you only did what you were told to do and that Sousuke is the one I should be mad at. We’ve talked a lot about it during lunch so I guess I’m feeling a bit better by now."

He talked about 'that night' as if they hadn’t done anything in his bedroom. Haru was bemused. Did he think it was all part of the plan from the very beginning?

Because it hadn't been at all.

"I was scared that Sousuke didn’t trust me. That it was why he had hired you. But that wasn’t his motive so I guess he’ll pay for my lunch for another couple of years until I totally forgive him. As for you, you’ll make dinner tonight. Does that sound fair to you?"

"Do you like mackerel?"

Rin laughed. "What’s with you and mackerel? You only talk about fish."

"Not any fish. Mackerel."

"Fine, as you like."

"I only cook mackerel." Haru only left when he saw on Rin's face the smile he was so dearly looking for. Eventually he gave him Makoto's coffee shop's address, and it was with a heart as light as a feather that Haru came back to the Sharks' base.

 

Natsuya was waiting for him, and they practiced with the VTI for another hour or two before they were interrupted by Aki's foreign voice.

"He's awaking up," she said.

They didn't need her to precise who she was talking about. Soon the three of them were running to the nursery.

"Nao!" Natusya sat on his bed and took his hand. "Can you hear me?"

The patient coughed but showed no sign of full awakening. There was a tube in his mouth to help him breathe, but he was still struggling. "He's not responding," the nurse said. "We need to sedate him a bit longer. I'm calling the chief."

Yet there were so many things he needed to say...

 

"I'm going to stay here for the rest of the day," Natsuya told Haru, "He's my best friend. I've known him for longer than I can remember."

Judging by all the emotions Haru could feel just by reading Natsuya's body language, they must be indeed really close and precious friends. He acted like a totally different person every time Nao was involved. This was certainly why his instructor didn't wish to remember his dearer ones from his previous lives.

"Before you go, there are things I need to tell you that Major will never want to."

They walked out of the nursery and stopped just underneath the now so famous door F. "You must have a lot of questions right now, about almost everything I suppose."

"I try not to think about all this too much."

"Are the memories coming back?" Natsuya asked.

"Not everything. I have blanks, and shadows, and mist..."

Natsuya fell silent and looked pensive. "Look, Haru, you must not have realized it yet but you're in the middle of a giant chess game and we don't know how many pieces our enemies have left. To solve the problem you need to know who you're fighting and who your allies are, and which ones could fail you."

Haru nodded. "Does your friend's mission had anything to do with Alpha 08?"

"Not really, or at least not yet," Natsuya replied. "It had to do with Moksha."

"What is it really, then? I haven't truly understood it yet. It's what the Sharks are supposed to protect, but all I hear about is some cyborg technology and reincarnation theories."

"You may be surprised, but I've been working here for five years now and I still don't really know what Moksha is." Indeed, Haru was. "Yamazaki and Major chose to give us the least information possible in case we were captured and tortured. What I know is that Moksha is a secret that could change the face of the world if it falls into the wrong hands, and that we're here to kick out the bad guys."

"And you're okay with this?" Haru asked, a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

"One day, if you're lucky to live long enough, you'll see the day that Moksha will come back to the base. And if you're really a Jiva like Marine confirmed, then you will feel it, you will know, and it will be enough. But this is not what I wanted to say in first place." Natsuya gave a look behind his shoulder to see that no one was spying on them. "It's about Nagisa."

"The half cyborg engineer?" Haru asked.

"Yes, him. Since he's Major's nephew, he has quite a sensible position. His family had always been loyal to CIRO and Japan, so when he fell sick the government took every charge and sought for the best doctors throughout the world to save him. His uncle from his mother's branch was a brilliant scientist. He saved him more than once and Nagisa adored him."

"Adored you said?" Haru repeated. "You mean Nagisa's uncle is dead?"

Natsuya nodded. "His name was Masamune Shigeru, he was the one who invented the Alpha technology. He was murdered for his work and now our enemies are using his own work against us. Now, remember what I said just a second ago. Nagisa is also Major's nephew; she was Shigeru's wife."

The chessboard evolved little by little into something more complicated than Haru would have supposed in the beginning. This at least explained the engineer's words when he had entrusted the core to Haru. Nagisa was eager for revenge. But Major, on the other hand, hadn't seemed as affected.

"It seems Major trusts you enough to let you in Nagisa's lab, but just know that it isn't part of the Sharks. Nagisa belongs to a special Unit directly under the control of the government where they're hiding Alpha 08's body. And the government doesn't always have the Sharks' interests in mind."

Haru frowned. "Who am I working for, then?"

"For the Sharks. The government doesn't have any idea of what we're doing. Only the Emperor and the Prime Minister know of our existence."

Natsuya gave him his day after that. By the end of the conversation, the pieces in their sight on the chessboard had lessened more quickly than Haru had thought. They couldn't trust the CIRO nor the Japanese government and fought an invisible enemy only to protect some 'thing' Jiva could feel without knowing what it looked like... They could have it in front of their very eyes without even realizing it.

Since he had some time to kill before going back to Rin's place, Haru decided to spend the rest of the day in the training room. More precisely, he swam until his legs gave in. And it was with a great difficulty that he walked back to HQ where he had left his bag.

He stopped. Major was there, watching the screens that gave her never-ending information about places from around the world. Did she ever go back home? Did she have children to look after? She was the same as this morning and yet, for the first time, Haru saw what she truly was. She was a woman; she was a widow, and yet she still looked so strong, almost indestructible.

He didn't notice Aki entering the room. "Major, Marine wants to see you. Right now."

"Is she having a vision?" Major asked.

Aki nodded and they both left. Neither of them seemed to have noticed his presence. Haru left without a word, and as soon as he stepped outside of the base, his thoughts went to a different kind of problem to solve, a mystery endowed with wild red hair and a smile to die for.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If your following my blog you might see soon enough some sketches of Sakura and maybe of some characters (their clothes and the different OCs probably). I'll maybe link the post if I ever find out how to put a link on a note...  
> Thanks for reading and please leave a kudo or a comment, and share if you liked it :)


	6. Hidden Motives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After a short break due to rinharu week, the story continues!  
> I honestly don't remember where last chapter stopped haha gomen

 

# Chapter 6 : Hidden Motives

  
  


The traffic never stopped in this part of town, and since Tanaka refused to sleep with her shutters down she was often awakened by traffic lights and engines’ whirring - old habits were hard to kill. From the 150th floor she stared through her window with a cigarette in her hand; apart from cars and motorcycles, the Nest was clearly visible from her place, and its roads and buildings shone an unwholesome light green colour. The view sickened her over the years.

Tanaka spent so much time at work that her apartment didn’t have any personal decorations or belongings. Everything was very much dull, grey and lifeless; they used to have a cat but she gave it to her neighbour when Shigeru died. He used to take care of it, not her. She hated cats.

Since she couldn’t sleep Tanaka thought about her latest conversation with Marine. Though she hated being ordered around by a child she couldn’t deny that the girl was a prodigy. She had indeed foreseen Haru's arrival in the unit almost a year in advance, and if she was also right this time, the Sharks would very soon face a difficult situation.

_'Ryugazaki’s wife is pregnant.'_

_'What? But_ _..._ _how? When?'_

 _'Before we changed the hideout. It’s been 3 weeks. He’ll ask to_ _go_ _home.'_

The Ryugazakis and the Sharks had been working together since the creation of the unit. The majority of the men were monks, trained by the Brahmans' ancestral techniques, and were the last human shields protecting Moksha from the rest of the world. _There must always be a sacred man to take care of a sacred weapon_ , they liked to acclaim for the past one hundred and fifty years. When one Ryugazaki died he was a replaced by another, and it had never been a problem until now, until Marine came to their door warning them that a great danger was coming back to take over Moksha and its power.

Her gaze was fixed on a car's headlights until it disappeared from her sight behind the 2nd district’s industrial buildings. She was waiting for a message from the hideout; she wouldn’t believe Marine’s words until she had tangible and reliable proof, even if she knew too well Marine was never wrong. It was just that she _really_ wanted her to be this time.

Her eyes were fixed on the horizon. She blinked once, and when her lids opened again there was a shadow in front of her on the other side of the glass.

Tanaka rushed to the window, but the shadow was already gone. She looked down; there was indeed someone falling from the 150th floor. From the distance she only saw an arm waving at her and the body disappeared just like magic in the middle of its fall.

 

When she entered the Sharks’ base she was saluted by her troops. "Major!" They all said with a profound respect she didn’t know how she had acquired. Usually she would spend time with them and talk about their different missions, but today wasn’t her day. There was still so much to do in a very short amount of time. She needed to talk to Nao about what had happened, then decode Alpha 08’s core, and then find a new hideout for Moksha if the Ryugazaki guarding it was, as Marine had said, going to be a father soon.

Plus, there was an unread message from Sousuke with a red title - ‘URGENT’ it said - but she had no time and no energy to deal with him right now. The brat still thought he knew everything better than anyone and had enough influence because of his formal position, but he wasn’t the Sharks’ leader anymore and he would have, one day, to learn his place. To chasse those suffocating thoughts out of her head, Tanaka urged her steps to the only place where she would find peace and silence.

The nursery was her refuge. Though the place was called that, it looked more like an advanced intensive care unit, one she used to supervise before she joined CIRO. She sat next to Nao's bed.

"How did he spend the night?" She asked the nurse.

"Fine. He was struggling against the life support, so we changed the VAC to AID mode."

"Is he breathing on his own now?"

"Yes."

"RASS score?"

"-2, my lady.  He’s just sleeping right now. Can we wake him up?."

Tanaka stopped the sedation, and when Nao opened his eyes, she took the tube off of his throat.

"Hey," she whispered. "Welcome back."

Nao gave her a smile. "It was close this time. Thank you."

"Natsuya saved your life by disobeying my orders. It’s him you should thank, not me. If it weren’t for his loyalty towards you, you’d be dead. I don’t know what you did for him in your previous lives and I’d rather never know."

"Don’t be so harsh on yourself," he murmured.

After blood tests and an CT scan, Nao was finally available for questioning.

"So, who cost gave you this nasty wound? What did you find out?"

"Not much, I’m afraid," Nao said, to her great disappointment. "But I think I was close to something big. This movement which calls itself ‘the Jannins’ has everything of a sect. New members are being told twaddle about reincarnation and how to change their future fate. The poor souls give them all their savings; they’re told that offerings will guide them to a better life after their deaths."

"Did you get any information about their leader?" Major asked.

"They call him 'The Eye', but I’ve never seen him. I have no idea of where he might be. They’ll soon have a huge meeting to welcome new members, I’ve heard that he might be there."

"Good," Major said. "And about Moksha?"

"The Jannins have a different word for it; they call it 'The Truth'. At least that’s what I understood. I wanted to know a little bit more about what they meant by that, and I think  that’s what gave me away. Since that moment I was followed everywhere I went. I thought I was discreet enough when I spied on some important monks, but then I got shot in the back."

"Natsuya was also following you," Major mocked him gently. "You’ve lost some of your talent, it seems."

Nao laughed and immediately his face twisted in pain as he hunched forward, clutching the sides of the bed.

"Give him some morphine," Major ordered.

 

Soon the drug made Nao sleepy again, and Tanaka stayed there holding his arm for a while before she left for her office - she was kind of proud that no one except her knew where it was.

It had a far warmer feel than her own apartment. There were a lot of pictures on the walls, showing her family, her wedding, her colleagues. There was a single bed with a blue blanket and a small fridge where she hid her favourite prune liquor. Old habits…

In the past months Tanaka had assembled a giant patchwork of letters, documents, photographs and everything else she could find to pinpoint the Sharks’ current situation, all of which were hanging on the wall above her desk. It went from the murder of her husband to Nagisa's health, from Marine’s visions to Haruka’s arrival, from Sousuke and his friend to this emerging sect.

_'Tanaka, do you believe in reincarnation now?'_

Marine had shown her lives from the past but it was all bullshit to her. She never understood why this girl, no more than 8, wanted her so badly in her Unit. How could a girl of her age lead any kind of team anyway?

 _'If you join us you’ll meet the love of your life,'_ Marine had then told her.

She didn’t believe her that time either. What a mistake, they lost three years thanks to her stubbornness. She had never cast doubt on Marine’s gifts ever again.

What Marine had taught her after all these years was that everything, _everything,_ would be linked to Moksha in the end, even the most insignificant things. The Hindu symbol was placed in the middle of her patchwork, and just next to it was a card she had found in one of their enemy's hidden pockets during an assault, with a violet-looking eye in the middle. They had found several more - some even died holding them so tightly that they couldn’t take them from their grips.

They were from the Jannin sect.

It was still not enough proof to accuse this organisation of anything, but it was a hint. She sent Nao there and they tried to kill him. Even if she wanted to believe her guess was right, there was nothing that linked them to Moksha. Nao could have been attacked because they wanted to hide their illegal skulduggeries, it could be literally anything – corruption, money laundry, maybe even murder. Unlike the rest of their enemies, none had spoken the holy name of Moksha.

The Eye was probably just a clever and charismatic man using Hinduism to manipulate poor lost souls after the horror of war to raise a lot of money. What he would do with all this money wasn’t her business, nor the Sharks, as long as he was not a threat to Moksha.

 

[*]

 

"I can’t believe you made this all by yourself!"

"It’s really not that complicated. Have you ever tried cooking something?"

"Not really…" Rin confessed. "I have to say I often eat outside."

"Master only eats pizza and fast food, it’s a miracle that he hasn’t grown fat in the past few years," Sakura added.

Haru smiled, but just a little. He didn’t want to be rude to his host, but Sakura's freedom of speech was a breath of fresh air. Haru had cooked as promised and it seemed Rin had never had anything so good in his entire life.

"I’m not letting you go before you teach me how to cook like that."

"It might take some time," Haru teased. "I’m not sure I’ll be able to stay that long."

"Say that again and I’ll show you how fast I can learn!"

Though Haru wouldn’t mind if Rin were to be a real catastrophe in the kitchen if it could extend his stay. He taught him the basics and what flavour worked well together. Rin found out that he loved meat above everything else, and that it was the most expensive thing to purchase.

"What can I do, I have expensive tastes," he said, locking his gaze with Haru’s. It sent little butterflies in his stomach every time he did that, every time he would look at him and smile like he was twelve-years-old and pure and innocent and had no idea of how cruel the world might be.

Haru started to get used to living there. Things went surprisingly smoothly with Rin, who accepted his presence and offered bed and board without a second thought. It had been a week now and Haru could venture far enough to say that they had fallen into some kind of comfortable routine.

"What does your job consist of?" Rin asked one night. They were having sushi.

"Can’t tell you."

"Looks physical. Your muscles have grown."

"Really?" Haru took another piece of sushi to hide his embarrassment. Was Rin simply being nice, or was this a confession that he was actually paying attention to his body?

"Yeah, really."

Haru swore his voice had grown warm. The sushi fell from his chopsticks.

"Oh, sorry."

Rin smiled. He was proud of himself, Haru supposed. It took only one compliment from him for Haru to forget how to use chopsticks.

At night Haru had the same dream, again and again. He was sitting on a beach, he knew it was in Ireland but hadn’t figured out why yet. There was a woman wearing a white dress standing in the sea, her back facing Haru. The sound of waves hitting the shore grew in his ears, forbidding him from hearing anything else. Each night the dream was more vivid, more clear; this time he noticed that the lady standing up to her knees in the sea was wearing a wedding dress. Haru remembered then, it was his wedding. The woman had been his wife a long time ago, but he couldn’t remember her face.

"Isn’t she pretty?" The man next to him said.

To that Haru woke up. So there had been someone sitting with him. His best man, he supposed.

 

"Hello, Master Haru! Breakfast is ready and Master Rin is still using the bathroom."

Getting used to Sakura had been the most difficult task since Haru liked being alone, especially in the mornings. Most of the time he wouldn’t talk to it before he had his mackerel toasts and then, he couldn’t refuse it anything. The AI confessed it had been behind Haru’s kind-of kidnapping and Rin had punished it by removing the radio from its function. Mornings were quiet but Haru didn’t mind. They would talk a bit, about this and that and it felt pleasant, almost familiar. Too many things were, and on top of them was Rin’s presence in his vital space. Haru hated being touched by others, and yet Rin was always putting his hand on his shoulder and brushing it down his back, nudging him, taking his arm to show him something on the TV, and Haru didn’t mind. Worse, he hadn’t realized that Rin touched his body every day until the one day he didn’t. It only supported what Haru had sensed on their first encounter, that it wasn’t the first time that they’d  met, lived together, kissed or made love. The crazy idea that Rin had occupied a huge place in his heart during one of his past lives started to settle in, and driving it out of Haru's brain proved to be a harder task day after day. The only cloud on the horizon was that he still couldn’t recall a single memory of Rin.

 

"And you, what does your job consist of?"

Rin took a sip of his coffee. "To keep it simple, I’m a firewall genius. I helped banks and multinational companies save their data and money from people like you, and now I work for our great Nation."

"Does not explain why you’re so fit."

"So you’ve noticed," Rin said, feigning to be surprised.

"It’s difficult not to when you get out of the bathtub with only a towel covering your lower parts," Haru retorted.

"Do you mind?"

"What do you mean, do I mind that you're hiding your lower parts or that you're not hiding enough?"

To that Rin blushed furiously, and Haru bit his lip. It was like a drug, he couldn’t help but flirt with Rin at the most inappropriate moments. It was like this other time, when Rin had been showing off his biceps, provoking Haru whose own biceps looked incredibly thin in comparison, and Haru had replied that he knew how it felt to touch his body. Both had fallen silent, and Haru had hidden in his bedroom for the rest of the day. Things were different now that they were working in the same place, and that Rin was convinced Haru had seduced him in order to get the Sakura file. Every day Haru weighed the pros and cons of taking a new step, of flirting with Rin’s limits just to see where it would stop. And the worst part of it all was probably the staring.

Haru would insist that Rin never realized it when he stared at him, but that was a lie. These moments were more than a satisfaction for the eye; when Rin was busy or vulnerable Haru would hide from his line of vision and study his face for a couple of minutes without interruption, hoping that a memory might come to his mind now that every single detail of Rin’s face was engraved into his brain. Still, nothing came, and eventually when Rin noticed, Haru fooled himself into thinking that he didn’t. But Rin always knew – it took Haru a tremendous effort to look away. He was rude, he knew it, and Rin could kick him out of his place if he wanted to. Yet he didn’t, not yet, and Haru wondered if it meant he had more space until he reached Rin's limits or if, perhaps, Rin enjoyed being watched as much as Haru enjoyed devouring his face.

 

These were the kind of thoughts that occupied his mind while he was running. _One hour every morning_ , that was Natsuya’s regiment for him for the next few weeks, and Haru had found it rather easy considering the other tasks Natsuya usually entrusted him with.

It was without taking into account that one hour in the real world was equivalent to four hours in the VTI's dimension. No wonder his muscles had grown. This program was more evil than Gou’s.

They were still looking for an adaptor for Alpha 08’s core. Despite his curiosity Haru hadn’t been back to Nagisa’s lab yet, simply because he saw no purpose to fulfill by doing so except hurting the 'half-cyborg'’s feelings. What could he be doing now that the core was out? Was he dissecting the rest of the cyborg? How did he feel about all this, he whose vitals organs were mostly made with cyborg technology? He and Aki probably got along well. Speaking of Aki, it’d been a while since he’d last seen her. She hadn't been at the cafeteria for the past few days either.

"Do you always eat alone?"

"Do I?"

Rin joined him when they ran into each other at lunch, which seemed to happen a lot lately. There was even one time when Haru suspected Rin to have deliberately waited for him.

"Without me, I mean."

"I’m having lunch with you. One person is enough not to be alone." Rin rolled his eyes. "Plus, I don’t mind eating alone."

Rin picked up his fork, his grip tightening around his knife. He was very subtle when he was upset. Strangely, Haru found it cute. "But I like it better when you’re here."

Contented, Haru went back to his tray when Rin didn’t touch his food.

Someone sat next to them. It was Yamazaki. His tray hit their table with a loud ‘bang’ so that the whole cafeteria now knew which spot he occupied.

"I had no idea the two of you were friends."

"Hello Sousuke, how are you doing today?" Rin said, and Haru noticed he looked almost angry to see his best friend there. "The weather is rather lovely today, don’t you think?"

Haru nodded to acknowledge Yamazaki’s presence. Rin wasn’t the only one who was angry, his friend and boss looked positively furious.

"We’re not in kindergarten anymore, you can stop this stupid game. Remember what I told you?"

"You’re not my mom, nor my babysitter."

"Rin, I was deadly serious."

"What’s the problem?" Haru interjected. He hated being left out of the conversation.

"It’s you," Rin told him, point blank.

"What?"

Haru almost snapped, but he couldn’t help it. Surprise overtook common sense, along with a hint of anger – and Rin’s words had the same effect on Yamazaki’s. From that statement he understood that the problem was his unexpected kind of friendship with Rin, and his latest conversation with Yamazaki popped into his mind.

It seemed Rin’s manoeuvre had succeeded, Yamazaki looked out of his mind. The rage in his eyes was enough to blast the entire place down, but it didn’t work on Rin. Rin stared back just as intensely, and Haru then understood that there was hidden behind their gazes a deeper conflict, something that had to do with them, their relationship, their trust and betrayals. Rin still wore the wound that Yamazaki had given his pride. If so, Haru might’ve been a bait or just a way to upset Yamazaki, a tool of Rin’s vengeance and nothing more than that. If so, Haru would need to leave the place soon, because he wouldn’t be able to stay stoic.

"I’ll let you fix this on your own."

Haru stood up and almost knocked down his chair in his haste, and was stopped by none other than Rin, his hand on his wrist. His grip was strong, almost hurting him. "No, I was finished anyway. Finish your lunch. I’ll see you later, okay?"

Were his words made to comfort him or to provoke Yamazaki? Was this planned or spontaneous?

For a second Haru almost thought Rin was going to leave a soft kiss on his cheek, and he would have known for sure then that it would have only been for show. But he didn’t. He eased the pressure on Haru's wrist and left as quickly as he had come. And now everybody was looking at them and at the racket they had caused.

The cafeteria had grown silent, but soon the usual liveliness came back and life went on. Yamazaki wasn’t angry anymore,  just thoughtful. "We really need to have a discussion."

"About Rin?"

"Yes."

"Why?" They were grown adults, they could do anything they fucking wanted to.

"You don’t know him. You don’t know anything about him or about his past, his scars, his wounds. But here isn’t the place to talk about it. Join me in my office when you’re finished."

 

Haru came back to the Sharks HQ using another passage after lunch time, and walked right past Yamazaki’s office.

 

[*]

 

"Haru, let’s stop here for today."

Natsuya took off the VTI helmet and took Haru’s near-collapsing frame in his arms. "You’re exhausted."

Haru was panting. "I can go for another round."

"No," Natsuya stopped him. "I need you whole, not half, and right now your mind is wandering somewhere else. I don’t know what happened earlier but it altered your focus. Training has no point if you hurt yourself. Get some rest, we’ll train when you’re ready."

Dumbfounded, Haru couldn’t move even after Natsuya left, too stubborn to admit that his instructor was right. He had been careless, had pushed his limits vainly to get rid of his frustration. But what was there left to do now? He could go back in the VTI and swim. That was the only thing that came to his mind, cold water for his hot head.

Haru put the helmet back on and dove.

But thanks to his recklessness his legs wouldn’t take him very far. He dove into the ocean but emerged in a 50 metre pool. He panted, pulling off his goggles and swimming cap, angry at himself. It wasn’t like him to get affected so easily.

"Is that really the best you can do?"

There was another swimmer in the adjacent lane, with sharp teeth and a yellow cap. He pulled it off as well, shaking his red hair free. Haru held his breath. What was Rin doing here?

"Come on, I won’t count this one since you’re not at 100%, but next time take the race seriously. It’s not because you won the last ten races that you can take it easy. It's insulting, you know?"

Rin looked maybe five years younger than the one he knew, or even more, perhaps. Haru blinked a couple of times, and this Rin pouted and splashed water at his face. "Hey, I’m talking to you, idiot!"

Behind the affectionate insult Rin was grinning. He had never looked happier.

"Ja! Let’s go for another round."

But Haru couldn’t follow him. His legs were frozen, he didn’t want to swim anymore. He took off the helmet, and when he opened his eyes to the real world Natsuya was there, frowning.

"I was going to turn that machine off but you beat me to it."

He saw blue eyes shining, lost. Haru wasn’t looking at him, he even suspected that Haru couldn’t see him." Haru," Natsuya shook his shoulders. "Haru, what happened? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah…I just…I don’t understand…"

"What did you see?" Natsuya asked him.

"I don’t understand a thing. Why can’t I remember?"

Natsuya took him in his arms and stroked his back. "The VTI is programmed to display set environments but it can also use your memories. That’s why I don’t really like to use it. Have you stumbled upon a lost and painful memory?"

Haru shook his head.

"Good, good. Could’ve been worse, then."

Images from his lost memories…Rin and him swimming…it wasn’t part of his imagination anymore. It was a fact, not a fantasy; he had known Rin before. Somehow, even if at first his bowels had been turned upside down, the news felt soothing, a coat enveloping his torn body. Finally one piece of this giant puzzle had found its place, and for one second Haru thought that everything made sense.

He got back to his senses with the urge to see Rin, to look at his face and compare it with the 'past' Rin’s. But he was nowhere to be seen.

 

[*]

 

Haru got back to Rin’s place with apprehension filling his lungs, his blood, his nerves; should he tell Rin now that he knew or should he hide the truth? And what were the right words to use if he did? 'Hello, I’m a 1258 year-old man that has been reincarnated twenty times or so and I’ve already met you in one of my previous life, and guess what, we were…' What had they been? Lovers? Friends with benefits? Had they been married at some point? The infinite possibilities opened a wide field of scenarios on which Haru had had time to elaborate on his way back. He couldn’t decide yet which one he would have liked. It was too soon to tell.

When he opened the door, his nose was welcomed by the scent of cooked meals and tomatoes, and on top of everything, the strong but delicate smell of his absolute favourite dish. Haru rushed to the kitchen. His eyes widened.

"What happened?"

Rin was wearing an apron and was holding a frying pan. He had obviously started a war with the sink and some vegetables judging by the mess left behind from his sudden burst of craziness.

"What?" He scowled. "It’s my home, I can do whatever the fuck I want to."

"Yeah, but you’ve never really cooked alone before."

"There's a first time for everything," Rin replied, "and I’m sorry but you’ll be the first one to taste my meals. I warn you, I used all the patience I had to make these so try to be nice."

"How unlucky, I also used up all my kindness actions at work today."

"You’re a dick, Haru, I hope you know that."

But he wasn’t paying attention to whatever Rin was saying. Haru plunged his forefinger into the frying pan, ignoring Rin’s vain attempt to stop him and brought his finger to his mouth.

Rin was holding his breath. "So?" He asked nervously. "Say something!"

"Strangely…it’s delicious."

"Yatta!"

Rin looked rejoiced. "I helped Master too!" Sakura joined in. "I found the recipes and did the groceries! There were sales so I made us save at least a hundred pounds!" Sakura was the only one affected by the last statement though.

"Wait," Rin stopped his celebration abruptly. "Why did you say 'strangely'?"

Haru avoided the fight by tasting another meal and moaning loudly when it hit his tongue.  

They set the table for two and Sakura went to Rin’s bedroom to watch a movie. Only the candles were missing from the picture.

"What are we celebrating?"

"Nothing, really," Rin replied

"Really?" Haru repeated, suspicious.

"Well, for what it’s worth my first dinner could have been a real fiasco, so there would have been nothing to celebrate and we would have ordered pizzas."

Rin was preparing a secret cocktail he had just invented – as if in the 23th century people could still invent anything – and from where he sat Haru saw that he looked rather proud of himself. Whether it was for the cocktail or because his food actually tasted good was a total mystery, another one to add on top of the pile of 'mysteries linked to Rin Matsuoka'. Still, there must’ve been something behind Rin's behaviour, especially after what had happened at lunch with Yamazaki.

"So, listen carefully." He came back with two cocktail glasses filled with a dark pink liquid. "I called it 'Sharkbite'. It's cool, isn't it?"

"As long as it tastes good."

"Go on, then."

Haru put his lips to the rim of the glass and swallowed the drink, the bitterness immediately filled his mouth, almost making him spit it back into his glass. "What is it?"

To his surprise, Rin was still smiling. "Ha! A lot of things. there's Campari, Schweppes and grapefruit juice, plus a secret ingredient."

"That's why it's so bitter."

"It's not that bitter," Rin corrected him. "It takes time to get used to the taste, but once you adopt it there's no turning back. You won't be able to drink anything else."

The smile on his face never faded away, and by the end of dinner Rin's assurance was rewarded; Haru was not drunk but assuredly tipsy and had finished his fourth cocktail when Rin brought them dessert.

"Hey, you bought that." Haru took offense.

"I didn't have time to bake. I took my day off after lunch to do all this but it wasn't enough. I had to test every way of cooking mackerel to see which one tasted best," Rin told him.

"You took your day off?"

"Yeah, I was really angry at Sousuke," Rin said, his tongue becoming looser with each glass of Sharkbite he drank. "See, he still has this big brother complex, he thinks he can decide for me what I do with my life. I supposed he told you?"

"Told me what?"

"Please don't play with me, Haru, not when it's as serious as it is."

Suddenly Rin's tone had taken a 180° turn and his joyfulness, carefreeness and all the alcohol in his veins had gone, replaced by a thoughtful face with a hint of sadness that Haru had already seen the day Rin agreed to accommodate him. Yamazaki was right, he didn't know Rin. He didn't know his scars, he never showed them to anyone, and apart from his boss no one knew him before he came to CIRO. What had Yamazaki wanted to say, and what were his intentions? Was it to warn Haru about Rin, or was it to protect his friend?

"He didn't tell me much," Haru told him quickly to ease the tension. "He just said that I knew nothing about you and that we should talk about it, but I didn't show up at his office when he asked me to."

"Why?" Rin demanded.

"I don't know." He trusted Rin more than Yamazaki, that was why, but it was too soon to tell Rin. He wouldn't understand. "I guess I don't really like Yamazaki."

"And you like me."

"More than Yamazaki, that’s certain."

Rin laughed bitterly. "That doesn't even sound like a compliment."

"No, it does not." Haru played with his empty glass, wondering if he should take another drink or just grab his courage with both hands and start the first draft of what would be his first confession. "But I-"

"I was so scared that he would ask you to get away me."

Rin hid his face in the palms of his hands, his elbows resting on their ridiculously small garden table, and sighed deeply. Haru held his breath. "Sousuke always ends up knowing what he wants to know. He probably already knows you're staying here and, knowing him, I was sure he would ask you to leave."

The red on Haru's cheeks deepened with Rin's words; he could feel his heart beating in his temple and in the tips of his fingers and toes. "I’m so relieved that he didn't trick you into his scheme yet," Rin went on. "I kind of panicked when I thought this would be your last night here, and I figured the least I could do was to thank you for your presence and your teaching, so I cooked like a madman and I'm so happy that it tasted good!"

"Why?"

"Well, I told you it was my very first time cooking on my own-"

"No, I mean, why would Yamazaki ask me to leave you?" Haru asked.

Rin remained silent on that point. He stood up, collecting the empty dishes and disappearing into the kitchen. It was a secret; the CIRO was full of secrets and of people lying to each other, Haru had noticed, but this secret was heavy enough for Rin to resist his wrath for Yamazaki.

"Rin." Haru followed him. "Rin, talk to me-"

"I can't tell you. I made a vow," Rin replied vehemently. The alcohol didn't make things any better. "If Sousuke didn't tell you then I can't. You should understand that better than anyone."

"Rin." Haru took his shoulder and forced him to turn around, leaving the dishes in the already full sink. "Maybe you don't have to say it."

They were standing so close to each other, but for Haru it still was not enough. He leaned against Rin, making their hips collide, and breathed into his ear. "You don't have to say anything, not when I think I've guessed what your turmoil is about."

"You know nothing," Rin said bitterly. "It's really just like Sousuke said."

"Then tell me."

Haru caressed Rin's face and the birth of his hair. "Tell me, please."

He tucked a lock of red hair behind Rin's ear. He was so hot; Haru’s fingers burned against Rin's skin but it was nothing compared to the warmth Rin radiated when he locked gazes with Haru. He leaned his forehead against Haru's and rested it there, breathing softly. "Haru, Haru, what are you doing to me," he murmured.

Rin’s finger circled Haru's shoulder and, without breaking contact, he allowed him to bring them to his bedroom and lay him down on the bed. Haru caressed his face again as if he hadn't done it in a very long time and had missed it like breathing fresh air, when a couple of seconds ago his fingers had been traveling down the curve of his cheekbones. His head was spinning, Rin's skin smelt so good and felt so hot. Feeling the heat against his own skin felt so exhilarating.

Haru exhaled, his lips brushing past Rin’s skin to reach full lips, and when he thought he would finally get what he had sought for the lips moved, and not in the way he would have wanted them to.

"You cannot do that," Rin said, his voice clearer than a couple of minutes ago.

"Why?" Haru did not kiss him.

"Sousuke will kill you."

"I don't care."

He rubbed against Rin's groin to prove he meant his words, and this time it took one finger from Rin to stop him from joining their lips.

"I’m serious. I know what you are. _They_ will kill you," Rin said.

Haru waited to say 'fuck them' to Rin because, god, he was just about to lose it. He really wanted to when he bit his finger, but when he looked down at him, he saw fear in his eyes, and that was something he hadn't seen in Rin's eyes before. He stopped and sat on Rin's thighs.

"Why does it have something to do with the Sharks?" Haru whispered, since they both knew what the problem was about.

"It's not your fault," Rin murmured. "No one told you who I was."

His hand found its way underneath Haru's shirt, his fingers brushing the toned skin there. "Hey, Haru," Rin said. "If I tell you who I am, will you tell me who you are?"

His hand traveled upwards, past Haru's ribs and where his heart beat, to reappear at the hem of his shirt. Haru brought it up to his lips and kissed the palm.

"...Maybe I will," Haru breathed imperceptibly.

 

Fresh air blew into the room through the opened window. Sakura's red eye was flickering above their heads, meaning it was asleep, yet Haru couldn't tear his eyes away from it as Rin told him his story.

"Remember I told you that Sousuke and I have been friends for a really long time?" He started. "We used to live in a small village near the ocean, far from Tokyo. In that place it felt like time had stopped, frozen in a time far behind the war. We used to live there until I moved here. There was me and my mother, and...there was also my sister."

Haru remembered the picture of Gou on the beach, the one on Rin's computer screen. They must have taken it there, on Iwami's beach.

"Where is she now?" Haru asked. "She hasn't followed you."

"I don't know. They took her away."

Haru turned his head towards him. "Who?"

Rin mimicked him, but more slowly, and in his eyes Haru saw red.

"The Sharks," he said. "One night when she was four years old they burst into our room and the noise of glass being broken woke me up. They took her right from her bed, and she cried so hard that our mother came in. One of them pushed her against the wall and knocked her out by moving only one of his fingers. Gou cried so much, she was yelling at them that she didn't want to go. I couldn't move. My legs were paralyzed but I was so angry, I wanted so much to run and take her back from them… They left from the window they had just broken. The last image I saw of them was their backs, and the red Sharks embroidered on the black leather."

During this whole time Haru couldn't look away from Rin’s pressuring gaze. He was cutting through his skin and charging him with the responsibility of this horrible fate just because he was part of the Sharks. But it was more than fifteen years ago...what could he do about it?

Rin turned to face the wall again. "Since my father was gone I could only share my rage with Sousuke. We spent hours looking for the red Sharks everywhere, interviewing people all over Japan for years, until he had to move to Tokyo to go to university. I never stopped my research, I never lost hope. I’m still sure that Gou is alive, and when eventually Sousuke found out what the Sharks were and who they were looking for, I felt so relieved. No matter how hard it was to enter their unit it was my only goal in life. I would infiltrate them, find out what happened to Gou and punish them for what they’d done."

Haru was still observing him. He’d been right, Rin had been chasing the lion from the very beginning.

"That's why you were so angry that I was recruited," Haru murmured the obvious. "That's why they’ll never let you in.”

"When Sousuke joined them I was so happy, I thought I would finally have all my answers. But things radically changed a couple of weeks after..." Rin went on. "He began to hide things from me, even though that was never the case before. He talked about top secret projects, saying that his life was on the line, that he could not help me anymore."

"So you joined the CIRO."

"Indeed I did," Rin replied with a laugh. "That's just how I am."

"It doesn't impress me a lot, knowing you," Haru mocked him. The result was immediate and one he expected; Rin's lips broke into a smile and he hit him with his elbow.

"You...meanie! I've just opened up my heart and you're not head over heels impressed with my herculean hard work!"

"Well, I’ve surpassed you in that field. Why would I be submerged in adoration for you?"

"Fuck you, Haru. I’m **...** so drunk." Rin sniffed and covered his eyes with his arm. "I am so drunk. I shouldn't have told you that."

"Probably," Haru told him, sleep clouding his sight.

"Ah, Haru, you'll be the death of me one day."

"Can I sleep here?" His lids weighed a hundred pound thanks to the alcohol, and Rin's revelation took all the energy he had left.

"Aren't you already?" Rin scowled, and then yawned.

"I mean here in your bed?"

Sleep took him over before he got to hear Rin's reply.

  


When Haru woke up he immediately remarked that the sheets he  was lying on were made of refined silk. Rin was lying naked next to him, his arm around Haru’s waist, sleeping soundlessly. The walls were white and the furniture was golden. Someone knocked on the door and entered before he had time to speak. Quickly he covered Rin's body and sighed when he discovered who had entered the room. It was only Gou.

She bowed. "I didn't want to wake you, but the councillors are waiting for Rin."

"What time is it?" Haru mumbled.

"The sun has been up for hours."

Gou was wearing a very beautiful coral dress along with gold jewelry, and her hair was made up in a very sophisticated way. Judging by the sight they were probably in a Sultan's palace in the middle of the 15th century.

She left with a warm smile. "I'll see you later. Don't forget all your stuff before you leave through the window. Last time father found your turban and one strand of your hair was still there. He was so furious… Well, you know him, he’s always like that no matter what the situation is."

She closed the door, and Haru went back to bed with no intention of leaving the warm place so quickly. He stared at Rin's face; he was still sleeping and looked like a child. He was, maybe. God, he looked so young when Gou was a woman. How old were they?

"Are you dreaming?"

Sitting at the very end of the bed was Gou, back again. Except this time she was wearing her uniform from Iwatobi and not the coral dress, except that she was holding in her arms a little girl wearing a yellow oilskin with pink hair just like hers, and that she was not smiling at all.

"Haru, tell me, is this a dream?"

He nodded. What else could it be?

"Good. Haru, you need to look at the picture."

"What picture?"

"I am stuck. You need to look at the picture."

"I don't understand."

"I have very little time. Look at the picture."

Just then, Rin stretched and groaned. He opened his eyes and kissed Haru's thigh. "Hello, my night visitor," he said against his skin. "Before leaving this time, the least you could do for your Prince is to give me your name, don't you think?"

Too busy staring at Rin's gorgeous face, Haru never figured out how Gou disappeared from the room. He woke up wondering where she had gone, and if everything was just part of his imagination or of something more.

 

When he met Rin in the kitchen the next morning, he had already drunk three espressos and had swallowed twice the meds he should have taken. "I hate hangovers," he groaned. His eyes weren't particularly avoiding him, them always being set on the floor had more to do with his sobered-up state, but then again it was difficult to judge in which state of mind he was. Haru had been so close to kissing him, they had been so close to bliss. Did Rin remember any of it? Did he remember their almost-kiss or what he had said, the desire in his eyes and hands, or the reason why he’d stopped? Was he serious when he’d told Haru that the Sharks would kill him if they got too close?

"...I think I'm going to vomit again."

They went back to Rin's room to find fresh clothes which smelt of lilies and pineapples. The door to his office was open, and from there Haru could see his computer, and the picture of Gou  on the screen. She was wearing a yellow oilskin.

"Did you take that picture?" He asked Rin.

Rin joined him, his shirt unbuttoned. Haru stared downwards. "Oh...yeah. I did. Haru, about what I said yesterday..."

"I'll help you."

Rin's hand froze at the middle of his shirt, stuck on a button. "Excuse me?"

"I said, I'll help you," Haru repeated.

When he heard nothing from Rin, he forced him to meet his gaze. "Rin, I’m serious. What happened to you is terrible, and you need answers."

"But they'll kill you if you do. Sousuke got death threats, that's why he couldn't help me."

"I told you, I don't care. They don't scare me. I’ve been through much worse." He leaned in, diving for Rin's face while taking his cheeks into his hands.

Once again, he was stopped by a finger on his lips before he could reach Rin's. "It would maybe be wise to wait until I've brushed my teeth for that, don't you think?"

Haru grimaced but indeed, it was.  
  
  
  
  
  
  


                                                                                                               

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suck at finding chapter titles.  
> Also, Gou Matsuoka, my child, is finally properly mentionned
> 
> I might post some extra on tumblr. Follow the tag moksha or my blog. I'm not sure when I'll be able to do it tho (I have some OC pics and some...cocktails recipe. Hahaha)


	7. First meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took time to write this and the next chapter. This is unfortunately not beta but edited and rererereread maybe 20 times.  
> It's pretty long so excuse me for any typos and such.  
> I still remember saying i'll post stuff on my tumblr about the story. I'll post them on my blog and under the #moksha tag.  
> This chapter is 9k long...don't ask me why.

 Glossary :

**The Doors (A to F)** : different secret exits of the Shark's base. (I'll try to draw a map one day...)

Characters:

**Igor(s)** : Sousuke's henchmen, always wearing black tuxedos. Haru calls them all Igor.

* * *

 

 

# Chapter 7 : First meeting

 

 

The never-ending noise from the monitoring and perfusions' syringes felt falsely comforting, like an ominous lullaby. Marine had gone through the same hardships a couple of years ago, so she spoke very quietly with her hand resting on the patient's arm. 

"Can you talk Nao? Or are you still too weak?" 

Under the white sheet Nao was still breathing with difficulty. His lungs had been badly hurt by the shooting. "I can hold a conversation for some time, depending on how much you want to hear." 

"Everything." Marine said. 

"It will take some time then," Nao brushed his hand where the bullet hit him. "Where do you want me to start?" 

Marine took an old picture from a bag that was resting on her legs. "Have you seen this man?" She asked. 

Nao took a closer look, the photography was old and of an odd yellow colour. "I am afraid not, why? Is he the man you think is behind the Jannins?" 

Marine looked disappointed when she took the picture back from his hands. "He’s an old friend of mine," she told him. "I felt his presence again, a couple of months ago." 

"It looks like you’re talking of a very old friend. Could he be a Jiva just like us, by any chance?" 

"You guessed it right, like always." 

Nao gave her a smile, "We 'Omnis' are more or less very alike. Our vision of the world is the same."  

"Haru isn’t like us though," Marine added. "His story really is unique. I don’t understand his timeline, there’s a hole of a hundred years… I wonder what has happened to him." 

"Even you can’t tell?" Nao asked, a hint of surprise in his voice. 

Marine shook her head. "Hélas! Even my abilities have limits. By the way, I could look into your mind if you are too tired to talk. I might find what I am looking for more easily." 

"You know Marine, one day you’ll be so used to read people’s minds that you’ll stop talking to them, and you'll wake up one morning and realize you are all alone." 

Nao gave her a warm smile, and Marine withdrew her hand. She had been used since her birth to use her abilities in order to get what she wanted from people. She had only been taught to live this way. Even after all these years spent within the Sharks' walls, some times she forgot what it felt like to have allies. 

"Friends," Nao said. Marine looked up to his eyes, "You have friends now, Marine, don't forget it." 

Usually it would be very difficult to read Marine's mind unless she felt tormented, something that happened rarely. Nao waited until she came back to her senses and her mind became opaque again. 

"But Nao, none of what to say matters because in the end, it will all disappear." She said calmly. 

He frowned, "What do you mean by that?" 

Marine glanced at the picture of her old friend before putting it back into her bag, "Nothing, nothing important for you or for the Sharks. I need to know some information about the Jannins though," she went on, "Aki has taken your mission over and I don't want her to have the same fate as you – she doesn't have her personal prince charming yet-" 

"Aki? Are you sure about that? What did Major say about this?" Nao questioned. "Aki is the newest member she is far too young for that!" 

"On the contrary, it's because she is young that she is the perfect match for this mission." Marine retorted. "Plus, she is not the newest member, not anymore."  

 

[*] 

 

As soon as they had passed the door the way to the CIRO building turned into the weirdest and most awkward walk of Haru's the entire lives. Rin hadn't kissed him when he came back from the bathroom because he was outrageously late and he didn't want Sousuke to be suspicious of anything. When the name of his best friend left his lips, he had given Haru a horrified look. "He must never find out." Rin had said then, and hadn't spoken a single word since.  

He looked lost in his thoughts, Haru noticed, and chose to do the same without disturbing him. The determination he clearly saw in Rin's eyes made him jealous, it was as if nothing would ever destroy him, as if Rin was indestructible. 

He took Haru's wrist just before they reach the gate. "I'll take another route, we shouldn't be seen entering together. I'll leave earlier on morning from now but for today we have to be careful. Come to my office at 1 PM if you can, Sousuke won't be there and there's a few things we need to discuss… if you're still willing to-" 

"I have one word. I said I'll help you, I'm not going to back off." 

Haru felt the grip on his wrist tighten, something Rin didn't probably notice. It sounded like him, doing those kind of things, letting his body react to what Haru said instead of speaking.  

Rin was still looking at him as if yesterday night had only took place in his own head, "Fine, but you shall remember before your last breath occurs that I warmed you." 

"You did already, more than once." 

Haru laced his fingers in between Rin's, felt the pulse beating against his palm increased before slowing down. "You're not alone in this anymore. I promise. I am not going anywhere." 

Rin kept looking at him as if he wasn't real. "Of course," he said after a certain time, "Where would you sleep?" 

"And get grilled mackerel in the morning?" 

"Why does it always have to end with fish for fucks sake." 

There was a frown on his face but Haru knew better. The ice had melted. And just when he thought he was safe, the second Rin grasped on his hand harder something happened, something that Haru would define as terrible, in hindsight. 

Haru remembered reading something of the sort, something about some Jivas having tactile memory, people like Aki and Natsuya he assumed. His skin might have the same capacity with Rin. In the blink of a eye Haru found himself in an ancient city, walking on a sanded road. There was a gust of wind, and the sand flew in from of his sight. There was someone talking to him in an old Arabic dialect he didn't remember anymore but all that caught his eyes were a man, a lonely man, standing on the other side of the road and wearing a white tunic that barely hid his flaming hair. And yet there was no light in his eyes, only shadows and an hint of melancholy. 

The sad man advanced on the road. Another man on a horse riding on the sanded road did the same in the exact same direction, with a sense of timing that couldn't be left for interpretation. Haru heard his friend screaming his name when he jumped on the stranger, pushing his life on the thin line between the horse's hoofs and the sad man skull. They both fell on the ground. The sad man asked why, his eyes were shining. 

Haru took his hand to get him back on his feet. His hood had felt in the fall, revealing his imposing and beautiful mane. 

"What is your name?" Haru had asked the stranger with red hair.  

It was the first time he met Rin. 

 

 

 

Natsuya found him in the corner of the training room. Haru had brought his knee against his chest tightly and didn’t want to let them go. "I don’t want to use the VTI today," he stated more than said, as it was a truth and not something open to debate. 

"What happened?" Natsuya inquired. 

Haru turned his head in the opposite direction. He couldn’t tell him. There wasn’t a single person alive he could confess to. If he were right and his memories intact, he had met Rin on four of his previous lives, and had been his lover at least in one of them. The worst part of all this nonsense was that his feelings for Rin were already crushing him when he probably couldn’t feel half of them. There was no way he could cope with another unwanted memory coming out of the VTI. 

"I just don’t want my life to get more complicated than it is now." Haru told his instructor. 

Natsuya knelt in front of him. "Is it about your past?" 

Haru nodded, even if it was only partially right – Rin was part of his past and present, and probably he would be part of his future as well, if he had any. 

"Haru, you are the oldest of us. It’s understandable that the things you experienced feel too much for you, especially if you didn’t remember anything before you came here." 

But his wise words felt vain and distant in Haru’s ears; all he heard was Rin’s voice saying his name, again and again, to the point of turning him crazy. How many times had Rin introduced himself ? How many times Haru had to feign he’d heard the name for the first time ? Haru buried his face his the palms of his hands. 

"No VTI for you today," Natsuya put his hand on Haru’s shoulder. "I promise. Today we’ll work on the present and future only. Come with me." 

Every step they took weighted a hundred tons on Haru’s joints. He counted.  One, two, three; 300, 400, maybe more than 500, how long as it been since their first encounter? The flash of images from earlier wasn’t provided enough in details for him to determine exactly where it was and when. It could have been in at least 15 countries and on a period covering 400 years at least. That wasn’t that important, Haru decided. What was important, crazy and painful, was that it had been a very long time ago. His love for Rin had survived through the ages and in each visions he had of him, his heart ached, speeded up, and swollen in his ribcage. 

The place Natsuya took him was an indoor shooting range from the late 21st century. It took Haru a couple of minutes to realize they had left the Sharks’ base; yet the place was deserted and the furniture were dust covered. There were six ranges and a 9 mm in front of every gallery.  

"Nothing feels better than reality," Natsuya said, "the noise, the vibration,  the smell of powder…focus on your target and on your arm, noting less. You’ll know you find peace the moment you’ll hit exactly where you want to shoot." 

He handed him a helmet to protect his ears. Haru felt reluctant to put it through. "Is this going to shove me in another parallel dimension?" 

Natsuya smiled, "Be reassure there is not such technology in the room. We’re back in the 2050s’." 

In his hand the gun felt heavier than their new laser guns. Major was still caring one, he remembered, he saw it hidden behind her vest last time. He wondered why, did she love old things, or didn’t trust technological advances? That would be a shame, considering who her husband and nephew were. 

Haru shot immediately after he aimed the head's target. He emptied his magazine within a few seconds before Natsuya could protect his own ears.  

"You could have warned!" 

"Oh, sorry, really I’m sorry." Haru apologised .  

"You really need to get your head clear quickly, don't you?" 

The target came back, none of Haru’s shoot had left a bullet hole.  

"You need to focus on what you aim at, and forget about what's troubling your heart." 

Of course it was easier said than done, when these two things were actually the same, but Natsuya didn’t need to know – he shouldn’t, mustn't, no one had to. 

He decided time stop after a couple of shots, soon after one of the bullets touched the targets right shoulder. "You sure?" Natsuya asked. 

"I'm positive." Every time Haru shot his feelings for Rin, buried with his memories, resurfaced alone. He still had no idea of what kind of lives they had shared, only that he had loved him more than he thought loving was possible, and that he probably did still, immensely.  

"It didn’t help as well as you said it would," Haru said.  

His word weren’t bitter, just weary. Natsuya put the helmets back on the wall. "You really need to focus on something else. Those feelings you have, they work like poison. The more you’ll think about it the more you’ll refuse to let go." 

Haru refused to look at something else but his own feet. "How could you possibly know?" He scowled.  

"You know, Haru, you aren’t the only Jiva down there. You aren’t the only one who had to suffer because of unwanted memories that came back at the wrong timing." 

Natsuya's words was somehow harsher than what they usually were; it was the very first time Haru thought he recognized a feeling they shared in common for the time being. 

Anger. 

Did he do something wrong ? Did he forget something important ?  

"Did I ever tell you in detail why I was particularly hostile towards the VTI?" 

Haru shook his head. "No, but I’d like to hear that. I have a feeling it will be instructive." 

Natsuya smirked. "You have no idea. But first let’s not forget your daily routine. You’re not going to cut through your hour of running." 

 

 

"Who was it?" 

Haru was sweating through every pore of his body – after using the VTI so much he had forgot what it felt to truly exercise, strangely it felt a little better; he stunk but felt rewarded. 

"Who?" Haru demanded.  

"The person you lost," Natsuya sat on a bench, facing Haru, reading his face as best as he could – sweat free. "Was it a lover, a friend, a parent? A rock star maybe?" 

Haru drank half of the bottle, slowly, using the time to figure out if he wanted to give an honest answer or dodge the question. He trusted Natsuya fully, he was a good man, they were close to be friends but not to the point of opening his heart. When he closed his eyes, Haru concentrated on his aura. Natsuya was kind and patient, he could let him talk about everything he wanted and certainly not press him for details he'd rather keep for himself. And considering what he had told him previously Natsuya had gone through the same hardship once at least. He would understand.  

"And you," Haru joined Natsuya the bench with a towel covering his shoulders, "who did you lost?" 

"My little brother," he replied. 

"Ikuya?" 

Natsuya looked at him, surprised, "You remember him?" 

"Not really," Haru confessed, "I remember you talking about him. My memory is defective as you might have notice." He paused a couple of second. "How did he died?" 

"I don’t know, I hope he had an heart attack and died in his sleep."  

Haru looked at him bemused. 

"It wasn’t what I was referring to when I mean lost," he went on, "We, Jivas, know that nothing is ever lost. Every lives after their deaths come back to samsâra and after a certain time souls come back on earth for a new life. But humans…their souls aren’t really like ours. They are tractable. They don’t have the memories, and people can change a lot depending on the place they are born and the way they are educated. Not us. Our memories educate ourselves. We are more or less the same person, over and over again - unless there’s a problem with your memories just like you, but you’re a rarity." 

"It’s not the same with the other humans?" 

Natsuya leaned on the wall, he had never looked more melancholic to Haru’s eyes. "I loved Ikuya with all my heart. The first time I raised him practically on my own. He was a sweet child, he became a very fine human being. He did great things and then our lives parted, because of how life is. When it happened there was only one thing I was looking forward to : meeting him again in the next life. The idea obsessed me…I think it was maybe my last souvenir before I died. You can understand easily I’m sure, how disappointed I was when I discovered I would remain an only child in my next life." 

"Siblings don’t reincarnate together?" Haru asked. 

Natsuya shook his head. "I thought so as well but the samsâra is cruel, just as life itself. I sought for Ikuya for years. I finally found him after 5 years of active researches…and…" 

He was unable to finish his sentence.  The words were locked in his throat. Haru passed him the bottle of water. "He didn’t recognize you, did he?" 

"Of course not, how could he?" Natsuya said. He took a sip of water. "I knew he couldn’t, he had no memories of our time spent together, I just wanted to make new ones. I tried to get close to him, I spoke about the things he used to like, the sport he used to play…but he didn’t like them anymore." His fingers were nervously playing with the bottle lock between his thighs. "He had new centres of interest, a new hair style, and a new personality...there was nothing in this boy, except from his eyes, that reminded me of Ikuya. I was the one who didn't recognize my own brother." 

He wasn't looking at Natsuya at such a intimate moment of his speech but haru heard him swallowed the very little saliva he had left in his mouth with great difficulty. "Of course I loved him, I will always love him but it took me years and the help of a very good friend to realize I was running after a ghost, after the shadow of my little brother."  

" _'_ _S_ _ome_ _there_ _be_ _that_ _shadow_ _kiss_ _,_ _such_ _have but a_ _shadow’s_ _bliss_ _._ _'_ " Haru said thoughtfully. 

"What have you said?" 

"Nothing," Haru replied, "just some English word an old friend of mine used to say. It thought it fit the situation well." 

Haru had never thought that the meaning of very simple things, or concept, were drastically different for Jivas. Life, death, loosing someone...The Ikuya they had known and whom Natsuya had raised and loved for an entire lifetime was dead, because reincarnation couldn't bring back exactly the person who had died – only the soul, pure like a white canvas, waiting to be painted with experiences and memories remained. No matter how identically the shape of the canvas was, the whole picture would always be different at the end of the day. 

They were walking back to the Shark’s base, their set slowly, and heads full of thoughts. "Every time I got into the VTI I saw him. I saw his face, I heard his voice calling me...my memories and the mental image the machine sent me using them got mixed until I couldn't distinguish reality from my fantasies." 

The vision of Rin in the swimming pool in one of his previous use of the VTI formed a knock in Haru's stomach. Could the VTI have made it up entirely? 

"Nao helped me a lot through this, he helped me realized that everything has to end some time for other things to start. It was hard to let go but it was essential to mourn properly." 

"Have you seen him again?" Haru asked. The more Natsuya talked the less Haru would have to, and he clearly wasn't ready to discuss the tricky topic of his relationship with Rin and their cut timelines. 

 "I keep an eye on him every time I can. He’s living in the 8th district." 

"That's a good place to live nowadays," Haru remarked. There was a curl on Natsuya lips, and somehow Haru was glad to have notice. "That’s a chance that he’s living in the same town." 

"The world is in a very bad shape right now," Natsuya went on. "Now that the United Kingdom doesn’t exist anymore Europe is in constant civil war. Ireland and Iceland have been whipped out of the map by the Russians, China and America are bankrupt…we’re barely recovering from another nuclear bomb. Tokyo may be the best place to live in the world. Right now, almost 10% of the population lives here." 

Haru was in shock after such a terrible news – he had been through so much wars and conflict that he had stopped counting the dead long ago. 

 

When they came back to HQ by a new secret passage Haru had never seen before Major was in a very heated discussion with Marine. The older lady was lying against the console of her giant computer while Marine remained on her wheelchair. Despite the height difference, the young prodigy was defending herself rather well. 

"I told you it was going to happen. I hope you have thought of something. It’s been a almost a week." 

"How a woman is supposed to know that she is a week pregnant !" Major shouted. 

"They are Brahmane they know things better than humans !" Marine bit back. 

"Ladies! Ladies, what's going on?" Natsuya said with a smile to ease the tension. It didn’t worked as expected since he now had two pairs of angry eyes pointed at him. 

"None of your business !" They said together.  

The boys didn’t know what to do with themselves anymore. 

"We’ll have this conversation later that day," Marine decided. "Just for you know, I have found someone to replace Ryugazaki. You just have to organise the exchange and find a new hiding place. Haru, is there something bothering you?" 

Too stunned to think of anything intelligent to say, Haru only spoke the truth. "Yes," he replied hastily.  

"Good!" she said vehemently, "I didn’t expect anything else!" 

And with that she was gone. 

"…Woa. What was that?" Natsuya asked. 

"Natsuya I never thought you would be a neophyte with intimate relationships with women," Major joked, which made the young man blushed furiously, "for this is only a woman being angry. I underestimate her French temperament..." 

Haru laughed at how embarrassed Natsuya was. "First, that wasn’t my question, two there is hardly any link between a woman’s anger and any kind of sexual activities-" 

With that Major burst out of laughter. 

 

She dismissed them as soon as she found air again, but before going she gave two vital information for Haru. 

The first one, Yamazaki had what he asked for, and would be delivered during lunch. 

The second one, his evaluation had been settled in a week. 

"With everything that is happened at the same time we can’t afford to wait any longer. Since there would be little time of preparation we’ll use the VTI together and I will personally test your capacities. After the trial is over I’ll decide if you are worthy or not to put on the Shark’s jacket." 

"It’s way too early!" Natsuya protested. "Your warms up will be enough to kill him." 

Haru rolled his eyes. Was he that bad at running? 

"What a chance, we’re not looking for a tank like you, but for a brain." 

Natsuya frowned but kept his mouth shut. 

"What if I fail?" Haru asked out of worry. 

"Let’s hope that you won’t, pretty face." 

Knowing the Major, it didn't mean anything good. 

 

 

Lunch came way too quickly and Haru found himself dreading the big hand as it got closer to the 12, meaning it would be 1 PM soon, time to meet Rin again. Haru walked to the cafeteria with his head in the clouds, trying to convince himself that he would have to go to Rin's place at the end of the day, and that it was only childish to find an excuse to postpone their meeting – even if he already had a handful of reason not to go. His state of agitation and uncertainty was profoundly affecting him. It wasn't like him to act like a scared cat. Rin was just a man after all what could he possibly do to him? Major was more dangerous, she could kill him with a dark glare and a misplace high kick and he didn't fear her like he feared Rin. 

No, rectification, he didn't fear Rin, but the idea of Rin not loving him was unbearable. The idea of a man he didn't even know and yet love with every single one of his cells not loving him back gave him nausea, and that fact alone only played a big contribution to Haru's despair. In front of the cafeteria's door Haru sighed deeply, not really happy with how his life had turned in the past few weeks. He missed Makoto and their simple life. 

"Hey! Haru!" 

Life was good when nothing else than the twins education and what they were doing for dinner mattered. If only-someone took his wrist and Haru jumped in surprise. It was Rin, he knew it before he turned his head. 

"Hi,"  

"Hi." 

"I called you," Rin's cheeks were red, it was distracting. 

"Oh," Haru was at loss of word. 

"I ran after you," 

"Really?" 

It explained why Rin was blushing. 

 

"I thought we weren't supposed to be seen together."  

Rin ate with him in the middle of the cafeteria, "Well, I thought about it a lot this morning," he poured Haru some water before filling his own glass, "Sousuke knows me better than my own mother, if he notices that we've stopped seeing each other he'll find it suspicious more than anything." 

From what he had gathered during his encounter with the man Rin's idea was far from being a bad one. "You have a lot of free time to think it seems. What are you working on at the moment?" 

"Nothing really thrilling. Firewalls being attacked, me trying to find who did it and why...it's keeping me busy but I'm not complaining, I still have time for my personal research and all, well, you know what I'm talking about." 

Haru pretended to be extremely taken with the content of his trail while Rin ate silently, hoping he wouldn't notice how uncomfortable he felt – he hadn't locked eyes with him since he took his wrist again. Yet their surprised meeting occurred more smoothly than Haru had anticipated. There was no stomach ache or dizzy head, no buzzing in his ears or hammering heart race; just the usual tickling at the corner of his mouth each time Rin did or said something stupidly cute – he apparently had entered a contest of 'who can put the more pasta in his mouth in one go' and was close to victory – and a warm feeling, spreading from his cheeks to the top of his fingers. After all he had seen and foreseen, looking at Rin just felt like having a bad crush. 

"Why are you smiling?" Rin asked, with his mouth still full of pasta and tomato sauce on the corner of his mouth. 

Caught in the act, Haru quickly found back his composure, "I was trying to imagine how Yamazaki taught you how to eat for you to fail so badly." 

Rin kicked his leg under the table. 

 

They took their coffees in Rin's office as planned. 

"Have you found anything yet?" Rin asked. 

"I haven't yet, morning was tough," Haru lied, truth was he totally forgot about Gou the moment his memories came back. "But I-" 

"Don't worry I wasn't hoping for anything so soon. Just a couple of advice. Don't ask about Gou directly, they'll kick you out of the team instantaneously." 

Haru rolled his eyes, "I'm not that stupid." Why was everybody doubting his capacities today? 

"I'm just trying to help!" 

"Rin," Haru cut him, "You seems to know a lot more about the Sharks than I, can I ask you a question then?" 

Rin nodded, "Of course, as long as it is not how I came to know this much." 

"What happens if someone doesn't pass Major's test?" 

Rin's face spoke better than a hundred words. "Let's say you want to pass that test. I want you to pass that test." 

"Is that really terrible?" 

"I heard they can wipe out your memory," Rin explained, "I've seen people getting out of HQ from one of the old subway exits, stumbling; they had forgotten everything that had happened to them for week priors."  

The new sent a shiver down Haru's spine. Not only would he lost the memory of the Sharks and that he was a Jivas – and what it implied - but he would also forget Rin. That was out of the question. 

"So if I want you to help me find my sister, which I want more than anything, either you're the best double zero of the creation and you solve the mystery before your test or, best option, you succeed it. When is it due?" 

"In a week," Haru replied. 

"Are you ready?" 

"Not according to my instructor," Haru answered, and sighed. Major said she was looking for a brain, it gave him hope for a less physical trial than what Aki or Natsuya had gone through, but the woman was clever and unreadable. The task would be hard no matter what and no matter how prepared Haru thought he was. 

"If you don't feel ready enough I guess I could help you be. Trust me this is my field of predilection and, I don't want to show off or anything but-" Rin stood up and showed Haru his perfectly toned body. "I am gorgeous." 

Haru couldn't help but laugh. It was the last thing he expected Rin to say and honestly, even if he wasn't wrong – of course he was gorgeous! - he felt the urge to provoke him. Haru leaned, and pinched what could be called a very tiny bulge under Rin's waist. "Then, what's that, Matsuoka? Isn't it what they call a love handle, by any chance?" 

"I hope you do realize that I can see you're doing it on purpose and that you will be severely punished, Nanase." Rin groaned. "No more mackerel for you, starting from now!" 

"No!" Haru exclaimed, outraged, "You can't do that!" 

"You wanna bet?" It was Rin's time to provoke him, but both knew it was only a game – more for Rin because actually, Haru was very scared of not having his breakfast routine the following day. 

Haru sighed, admitted defeat, "Fine, I retreat what I said." He saw Rin smiling from the corner of his eyes, and realized then he had looked at him directly in the eye without being assaulted by old memories. What a relief. 

Rin rearranged his shirt and, with his back turned, went to the front of his office, probably because it was time for Haru to leave. His hair fluttered under his neck, when did he get it so long? 

Natsuya's words echoed in his mind but he chose to ignore them. He heard Rin mumble something silly, something like "I can only bribe you with mackerel." And it annoyed him for a reason he ignored yet. Haru took Rin in his arms by the waist and put his head on his shoulder. 

"No it's not true." He whispered, "Give me your arms and your eyes, give me your lips and your neck, and I'll make everything you want for an entire day." He had no idea why he was feeling so sentimental suddenly. 

Haru heard Rin laugh awkwardly, as if he was uneasy, perhaps a little embarrassed by how sudden Haru's confession had been. "Seriously? Just for a fucking day? Have you really looked at me properly?" 

"It was a long time ago," Haru teased, "I think I need a second look. Plus, in the dark it was really difficult to see how gorgeous you claim to be." 

Rin turned around in Haru's lap, his eyes darker than they had been all day. "You are terrible at flirting." 

"Complimenting people is overrated." Rin's body felt so hot against his, the way his eyelids blinked and his warm breath hitting his skin made his dizzy. "Plus, it seems to work rather well on you." 

"Your stupidity amazes me. And I am certainly not aroused." 

"And you are certainly a bad liar." 

Haru's mind, clouded with desire, worked on its own and his body leaned until his mouth was a breath away from Rin's ears. "Now if you want to take care of certain things before lunchbreak is over, you know the way to the men's bathroom. I'll wait for you there." 

Before Haru could congratulate himself for this awesome dramatic exit Rin had pinned him against the door. "Why would I use the bathroom when I have my own office?" 

With a hand behind Haru's head and the other softly tracing the curve of his cheekbones, Rin brought their lips together, delivering both of them from their frustrations. At first, Haru pushed him away, "Wait," he showed Rin the windows behind his desk, "People could see us." 

"Come on Haru, we both know we're in the basement, these are just computer screens to lure dogsbodies and visitors." 

Remembering this tiny details, Haru surrendered entirely and welcomed his tongue inside him, and made him own ran on top of Rin's while his arms circled his waist until there were no space left between them. He tilted his head on the left so that Rin's kisses went deeper, and whined. God, he hadn't felt this good in ages. Rin's hand on his hair was grasping tightly on some locks; it hurt a bit, but it hurt so good. 

Haru broke the kiss to get some air, just when Rin was about to suck on his tongue. He looked like a total mess. Rin went for his neck, he closed his eyes; how was he supposed to work after that? 

"Before this goes any further, you need to know that I have one rule," Rin murmured. His tongue travelled from the crook of Haru's neck to his earlobe, sucked it  until Haru bit his lower lips so hard he almost bled. Then, he stopped, abruptly. 

"Never, during, working, hours." 

"What?" 

Haru groaned when Rin left his body and came back to his desk. He was laughing, celebrating his sweet vengeance. "You owe me," he threatened. Rin turned around, a cocky smile on his face, "I guess you know where the men bathroom are, I'll see you tonight!" 

Haru smashed the door behind him. 

 

 

 

"Welcome back Nanase Haruka." 

The robotic voice welcomed him as he stepped into the locker room. He stopped by his own : the Shark's jacket was still there, waiting for him. In a week he would know if he was worth wearing it or not remembering it existed at all. As he closed the locker his name, written in a metallic plate, shone in the darkness of the room. What if... 

Haru scanned every lockers to find the name of their owner. He hadn't met half of the team, he realized – he was surprised to see that Yamazaki still had his own locker. Gou's name was not part of the ones he read. That wasn't much but it was a start indeed. Wherever she was right now, and if she was, as Rin believed, still alive, she had not been kidnapped to be part of the Shark's forces. 

Then, for what? 

Inside HQ, Major and Yamazaki were talking but their voices stopped as soon as they caught sight of Haru's arrival. "Where have you been?" Major asked, "Natsuya said you left early." 

"In the men bathroom." He looked at Yamazaki and to what he was holding in his hands. "Is it the adaptor?" 

Yamazaki nodded. "Our best engineer worked days and nights to get this done. Now we all rely on you." From what Haru remembered from the mini SD cart the measures were perfect. "You can use every one of our equipment, just ask whatever you need." 

"I'll use my own stuff, if you have no objection." Haru proposed. 

"We'll have to check it before you can use our network but there shouldn't be any problem." Major agreed. 

"I need to go back to my place to take what I require." 

Yamazaki brought his e-watch to his mouth. "I need a vehicle at Door C, immediately." 

_'Roger Sir.'_  

Haru's eyes widened like saucers while Yamazaki took him by the arm and leaded him to where the training room was, "Wait-" he said, but none of his words mattered. 

 

For weeks Haru had wondered what was behind it. A door, just next to the training room, with the words 'private access, members only' written on a red plate. Now, he knew. 

There was a shower; well, it looked like one, so when Yamazaki put him in there and said "Second door on your left. Have a nice trip, if I were you I'd hold the handle," it wasn't before the shower started to ascend like an elevator that he took a grasp of the situation. When he finally got up after being shaken harshly during the ascension Haru walked out of the shower, stumbling on white tiles, only to find himself in a deserted house. He took the second door on the left, like Yamazaki told him, and entered a living room. From the French windows he saw a man, wearing a black tuxedo leaning against a black Toyota waiting in front of the porch. 

"Right, everything makes perfect sense..." 

The man in black started the engine and drove before Haru could put on the seat belt. "You don't even know where I'm going." He complained. 

"857th Kabawashi Avenue in the 6th district." The man replied. 

"...Well, yeah, you're right. Where are we now?" 

"127th Abraham Lincoln Boulevard, 8th district. We shall arrive in 20 minutes." 

"Twenty minutes? But it's the rush hour, how could yo-" 

Eighteen minutes after and with the help of the CIRO siren – and a crazy driving – Haru was finally home. The man waited outside as Haru collected his stuff. Makoto and the twins weren't there, of course. School was due to end in a couple of minutes but they were to go the coffee shop anyway until their brother finished his turn.  

He missed them so much. 

Haru went to their bedroom. The place was so small they all sleep in the same room... at least, now that he was gone Makoto has a bed all to himself. There were toys shattered on the floor, Haru walked on the last Disney's figurine and almost broke it. He looked inside Makoto's pillow where they used to hide their savings. To his surprise it was rather full, more than what it used to be where he lived there. Then, he looked into what was his own pillow. There was a picture of the three siblings, of his parents, of him and Makoto when they caught their first fish. These memories would always be a part of Haru from now, but in his next life none of them would remember him...or anything of the others existence. 

He took them with him, deciding that a world where Makoto wasn't Ren and Ran's older brother definitively had a screw loose. 

 

 

"Welcome to Tachicoffee ! What can I – Haru!!" 

"Haru-chan!!" 

The twins ran to him and embraced his legs. Haru walked with difficulty to the counter where Makoto was taking care of another customer with a twin clinging on each of his leg. "Where have you been Haru-nii-san?" Ran asked. 

"Work." He said, when he finally made it to Makoto. 

"You missed so many things!" Ren shouted, he went on quieter when he saw the look his older brother sent him. "Nii-san is buying us a lot of meat! Do you know what meat is??" 

"It comes from animals!" Ran told them, "Like cow, or chicken, or cat." 

"We don't eat cat dummy!" Her brother added. 

"Why not?" 

"Because cats are cute." 

"Cows are cute too!" 

"You two calm down, you don't want to give Haru-nii-san a headache, don't you?" 

Ran put her forefinger on her lips. "What's a headache?" 

 

"So, tell me, what's this thing about the meat?" Haru asked, even if he knew very well who – or rather what was behind it. 

They were having a cup of coffee on the terrace. Makoto's coffee shop was situated on one of the highest building that wasn't part of the Nest, they could see from where they sat its shining form. Its pinnacle couldn't be seen on this cloudy day. 

To Haru's astonishment, Makoto was slightly blushing. "I think I might...have...a fan? It must be someone who comes at the shop. See-" Makoto took a piece of paper from his apron, "'Eat well and grow fast, From Daisy, xx' There's a little note in every delivery." 

"You are delivered here and not at home?" 

"God yes I am, imagine how weird it could be if a stranger knew our address! I think I would have moved... seriously... at least I know it's coming from a customer." 

He had a good point here. 'Daisy' was a clever...girl. "Maybe it took pity of the kids. Maybe it just want to help others." 

Makoro frowned, clearly offended, "Why would they pity Ran and Ren?" 

"Because they... don't eat meat?" 

He realized how silly it sounded too late. Makoto was even more bemused. "… How could they know?" 

Haru drunk his coffee by the straw. "Don't ask me. I am not 'Daisy'. Ask her." 

Makoto left him for half an hour then to take care of new customers. Haru played with Ran and Ren meanwhile. The shop was full and lively, it warmed his heart to know they could manage well without him – even if there was a hint of jealousy. 

"I have to go now," Haru informed his friend as he felt his e-watch vibrating non stop for the past two minutes – there were messages from Yamazaki. "I'll try to come back more often. I've missed you all." 

"We miss you terribly too Haru, but we're glad you're doing something very useful for the sake of Japan. The twins are really proud of you. We all are." Makoto's words touched him like no one's else could, and for a moment Haru forgot about Rin and being 1258 year old, and just wanted to accomplish his mission. 

"Before you go there's something I'd like to ask you," Makoto said as he walked him to the gate, "There's this thing I want to go to in a couple of weeks and I'd like to know if you could go with me." 

Haru shrugged. "It depends on various of things that I can't control, but why not. What is it?" 

Makoto's hands were fondling his apron, "It's... a... a concert?" He hesitated, meaning it was everything but a concert but Haru didn't care. 

"Alright, I'll go if I can." He would do anything to spend more time with his best friend again. 

 

 

[*] 

 

 

"You're late, Nanase." 

Haru handed him a cup of coffee. "Sorry, I got lost in the way of life." 

Yamazaki gave him a dark eye but took the coffee nonetheless.  "And with that my job here is done." 

And it was with an honest joy that Haru watched him leave. Having been brought back by Door C again Haru wandered in the Shark's base corridor with his arms full of electronics accessories and his very latest computer. Yamazaki had left him with a very important question to solve though : where was he supposed to settle? He couldn't think of any places he had visited already. HQ was already occupied but Haru knew very few places apart from the nursery, the training room and Marine's... 

Major was still in front of the main computer, she had put her glasses on and was observing various abandoned building of the Capital and whereabouts. "It looks like you are in trouble pretty face." 

"My name is Haru," he corrected as he walked closer. 

"Maybe. Has it always been the case?" 

It took him some time to understand what she meant. "I don't think so," he replied, "I think I might have been called Harry, or Harold, or even Hanna." 

"You had been a girl?" Major looked pleasantly surprised.  

"Souls have no gender." Haru informed her. She looked even more delighted. 

"That's really amazing. I would kill to know what it is to be a man." 

"It's not that extraordinary. The difference is not that noticeable." 

"Are you kidding me?" Haru blinked, he did not, "If I were a man with all the effort and work I had provide to this fucking country I'd be at the head of the bloody office, or worse, I'd be president. But here I am, working in the shadow of the government to protect an invisible weapon because some monks asked us to. If there's something that hadn't changed within the years it's sex inequalities. Even cyborgs are sexists." 

"It had been worse than what it is now." Haru replied. 

"It's not a reason not to complain, don't you think?" Major put down her glasses and glanced at Haru's blue eyes, and for a second he imagined her staring. "You must be a wise man, I assume. Marine told me you were the oldest Jiva she had met. Told me you were over a thousand years." 

"She told you right."  

"How do you live with that? How do you live with the world as it is? Aren't you sick of it?" 

"Judging by your request I assume you are the one who is sick of this world." Haru replied. 

"It does not answer my question. I have my opinion about the world. Humanity's stupidity will never cease to amaze me. But one lifetime is enough, and I'm glad that I get to forget how terrible Men can be. We're all doing the same mistakes, again and again, and we don't realize it. Ignorance is bliss, people say, but people like you or Marine, you literally see us failed again and again, since the beginning of time, and there's nothing you can do about it. So in other words my question is how do you cope with Humanity's stupidity?" 

Haru sat next to her, and turned his seat to face Major. "I simply don't care anymore," he told her. "Humanity is not my concern. I've lost count of people who died because of stupid wars, lost count of people I had to kill, or how many times I was killed. There's no point in that. That's not why I live." 

"If not that, then what do you live for?" 

For now Haru had a mission to accomplish. He had friends and a family, and hell it sounded like a dream still but he did have a lover waiting for him at the end of the day. This was fair enough for any man or woman living in dark times like these. But Haru was not an ordinary man. Deep down his Jiva's heart was craving for more. 

"I don't know," he confessed. "I chose to live my life day after day, I will continue this way until the day I die, and then I'll be born again and live my new life day by day... until the end of time, I guess." 

With her chin resting on her hands, Major watched Haru closely again, as if she was about to discover a treasure or the meaning of life hidden under his features. "That's probably the saddest thing I've heard so far. If I weren't that old, you'd probably make me cry." 

"I can hardly picture you crying." Haru said. 

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" 

"No, I was just being honest, I guess." He replied. "Are you looking for the new hideout?" 

"Oh man look at that, pretty boy doesn't only have a pretty face, he has a pretty brain as well!" Major answered with sarcasm. "Marine and I often have disagreements just like the one you've witness earlier, but in the end I have to admit she's always closer to the truth than I am. Do you know what she told me when I asked her the same thing that I just asked you?" 

Haru shook his head. 

"She told me that she was waiting. When I asked her what she was waiting for, she remained silent. I never knew if it was because she didn't want to tell me, or if she had no idea herself. I wonder-" Her e-watch vibrated just as she was about to add something else, "Oh, this is for you. I've prepared a room so you can work on the Alpha 08 mission. Come with me." 

They took the corridor's leading to the nursery and Door F. "If you ever need one there's a map of the base on your e-watch by the way." 

Haru groaned, "You could have told me sooner," he scowled. 

The room was spacious and supplied with everything Haru might need : a bed, a small fridge, a green plant – a fake one – and a television. There was even a treadmill and some weights. "There, now you have no excuses for leaving this room. You'll work until the Alpha's core decipher, understood?" 

Haru was about to panic when Major burst out of laughter. "Sorry, sorry I have always been terrible at jokes. This is your place now, use it whether you like it." 

Major left him alone eventually, and Haru took seat in front of the empty desk. He took his computer out of the black box where Igor put it after his checking – Igor was the man in the black suit, Haru chose to call all of them Igor for no reason - and after a couple of setting Haru entered his password and an old picture of his family displayed as his wallpaper. Finally, he was home. 

_"Hello_ _Haru_ _, Saba's speaking."_  

"Hello saba," it was how he called all of his computers. "Did they add anything new to your software?" 

_"Tracers, new antivirus_ _software_ _, word_ _proceeding_ _software_ _, spywares;_ _t_ _hat's all."_  

"So everything I'll do will be checked, that's to be expected I guess." 

_"I have no opinion on the matter._ _T_ _here's a new option we need to discuss. I can control the walls' look_ _._ _Which_ _localisation would you like me to stick up?"_  

As it spoke each brick of the walls turned over to reveal to splendid scenery. First the Fujiyama during spring, then a paradise beach in the Caribbean and its turquoise water, even a tropical forest. 

"Saba, are these pictures from your database?" Haru asked. 

_"Negative. It was in the walls' database."_  

"Can you add any kind of picture, some I have saved or from the internet?" 

_"...Affirmative."_  

"Do you have any panoramic pictures of Keem Bay?" 

In the blink of an eye Haru found himself staring at the endless blue sea, his feet on the grass just meters away from the white sand. When he turned around he could see the stone and the hills, and even the old house they used to play in. Only the wind was missing, and maybe the cry of seagulls, but that could be arranged easily. 

"Saba, open youtube." 

_"Shall I open the tab on one of the walls?"_  

"No, it is perfect the way it is." 

 

The view of his old home brought back pleasant memories of a happy life, nevertheless Haru didn't have any time to waste. The sooner he got rid of Alpha 08's secrets, the faster he could concentrate on his incoming test and increase his chance of succeeding. Thanks to Yamazaki's adapter Haru entered Alpha 08's core and opened it with one of his own made cracking software. 

There was no password to enter, no firewall to crack. 

What Haru saw at that moment was something he had never seen before, something he would have never thought could be real until this day. 

As the core displayed its secret there were just five letter on the screen, five letters he never expected to read. 

 

'HELLO.' It said. 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who had forgotten Haru and Natsuya had met in one of their previous lives and know each other before the fic, but none remember it well.
> 
> So I'm still looking for a beta :) or betas...  
> Hope you liked it !  
> See ya next water time...


	8. Blaze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In today's chapter : news from Aki, from Nagisa and...spoilers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is Explicit near the end so beware underaged readers :)

Glossary :

**Jannins :** A new religious group, quickly gaining popularity in Tokyo, especially with the poorest. Their leader, "the Eye", is in the Shark's sight. Their symbol is a violet egyptian pyramid with a single eye in the middle of it.

**Saba** : Haru's computer's name. AI interface.

 

* * *

 

# Chapter 7 - Blaze

.

 

 

 

It would be lying to state that Aki had had an easy life. 

Her father had left home when she was young and had never showed up again; her mother had raised her alone. She was a fantastic mother, a real model for her daughter. Brave, she had never given up, and had taken two jobs at the same time to keep her healthy and pay for her boxing license; because quidding was out of the question. Her daughter was a pure genius and her coach was confident, she would be a future pride of the Japanese boxing team! 

Like mother like daughter; since her mother had never given up Aki had trained twice as hard and had become the best of her team. The neighbour's son, Sousuke Yamazaki, had babysit the girl for free and had often come with cakes or a couple of drinks. The parents were very fine people but Aki’s mother had always refused to ask for more. She was brave and stubborn, maybe too proud in hindsight. 

Things had changed the day she had received a phone call from the Nest. Sousuke had promised her the earth and a very big amount of money, the kind of offer you couldn’t refuse. Even if it had meant living without her daughter it was for her greatest good. She had accepted. Aki had gone to live in the Nest and she had never seen her mother again. 

Her first years at CIRO were still blurry in her memory. Aki remembered being with Sousuke, along with the small scientist with golden hair and the face of an angel; she remembered the white coat an using the VTI helmet for the first time.  

The very first clear memory Aki recalled was Marine in her wheelchair, the end of her hair tickling her shoulders.  

"Yes I do," she had replied when she had been asked if she believed in reincarnation. She needed to imagine a better life for her mother, for next time, for the next life. 

The first months had felt like a dream. She was talented, she met new people, worked with amazing teacher and of course Sousuke was there, which made everything brighter. From the very beginning Aki had been enamoured with him, which was why she hadn't thought twice before coming all the way from Iwami to work with him, in a place she didn't know and with people she'd never met. Her heart had ached when she had learned about his demission. She thought she would never see him again, and even considered leaving the Sharks for a short moment.  

Then came the Major. 

To be honesty Aki would have never thought, the day they first met, that she would no longer regret Sousuke. 

Major Tanaka was scary. Her eyes were small and dark, almond shape, a pure Japanese which was rare nowadays, she wasn’t tall like Aki but she had strong shoulders and hips, and a deep voice ; she looked more like a panther than a woman, with her sharp hair cut and her icy gaze, sharper than claws. Aki had been scared of Major for a very long time. And since she was so afraid of her wrath she had sworn to be the perfect student and the perfect Jiva, and she had worked twice as hard as the others. 

A month after their first encounter Aki had discovered that her worst fear had no place to be, that as long as she was in her Unit there was no one who would protect her and help her as much as Major. 

"You come from Hokkaido?" Major had asked her on a night duty. They were watching over Moksha's hiding place, a deserted basement used by an old company which never got used again after the war. 

"Eh, no, I’m sorry," she had replied; even as she spoke the truth she was terrorised to prove her wrong. "I come from a small village near the ocean in the west of Japan." 

"Oh, I thought…" 

Major had never finished her sentence,  her eyes were still scanning the hideout but her mind was travelling elsewhere. 

"...But my mother comes from Hokkaido though." Aki had added. 

Major had smiled at that time, a thing she still rarely did, "That’s where your accent comes from." 

"My accent?" 

What she had learned that night were priceless information and dear memories Aki would keep deep in her heart for the rest of her life.Major had spent her early years in the same region as her mother, they could have been friends for all she knew, they were the same age after all. Major had also told her that night something she had rarely shared with anyone : she never had children. 

"That’s certainly the greatest regret of my life," she told Aki; and then out of nowhere Major had confessed her fears and hopes for the future, the story of how she met her husband, how she got into the Sharks and how she eventually became their leader. 

Her stories had only been stopped by a hobo wandering in the deserted area, and whom they had to neutralize before he could speak of what he had seen – the red Shark embroiled on their backs. Aki had always hated the blood dripping from her hands. It often gave her nightmares. 

 

"Do you sleep well?" 

A couple of weeks after their first real talk Major had noticed the rings under her eyes. She had killed a man for the first time. 

"His scream hunts me when I close my eyes," Aki had told her while they were outside, smoking a cigarette, "But when I'm scared and can't find sleep I remember a lullaby my mother used to sing.  It's not actually a real lullaby, it's just a song she loved listening to during her pregnancy, she told me. I sing quietly in my room so that the others can't hear and make fun of me, and then eventually I fall asleep." 

Major had finished her cigarette before replying, "If it's not enough, I'll teach you my own method. Maybe one day you could teach me that song of yours. How is it called?" 

"'My precious daughter'," Aki had said. "It's a very old song from a Jazzman. It starts like this : ' _She wanted a baby, I didn't want any, and yet, she won so easily...'_." 

Within the week Major had learned the song by heart, and as they went along with missions and operations, Aki fell in admiration with her. She had become more than her chief, she was her mentor. 

That's why she couldn't fail this mission. 

Infiltrating the Jannins was her absolute priority and she would put every chances on her side to do so. Aki stared at her fist for a few seconds and then, without any hesitation, punched her own face. 

 

Dressed with only an old white robe she had kept from childhood Aki crawled on the sandy road leading to the Jannin's monastery according to Nao's information, in the 2nd district. It was only  four in the morning and she knew that only a monk or a sister would be awake at this time of the day – or a drunkard, but she could get rid of him easily if he were to trouble her plans. When she was sure her robe was torn and dirtied enough, she groaned. 

A woman with a cream coloured and long dress was sweeping the front steps. She stopped when she heard Aki's moan. It was her chance. 

"...Please...help me..." 

Aki was barely visible from the sister view, only her voice could lead her to her localisation – being too obvious could lead to suspicion and after what happened with Nao she needed to be very careful. The sister found her soon enough and cried when she saw her face : her bottom lip was bleeding and she was missing a couple of teeth, her cheekbone was probably broken. Aki also had bruises on her arms and legs, and blood on her white dress. She had torn the bottom earlier, leading the sister to think of the worst case scenario. Everything worked according to the original plan. Sister Elly – that was her new name – held her by the waist and brought her inside the building. 

The monastery looked nothing like one from the front to the insides. It was an old post office which had been half destroyed, and rebuilt by the people who had found refuse in this abandoned part of Tokyo after the war. The only thing that remained from the 20th was the red symbol mimicking a T on the front door. 

Aki very carefully dragged her feet and stumbled at the first opportunity, which made the sister sighed in pain and hold her even tighter. The sister was nice, a middle aged woman with brown hair and a few lines under her eyes, warm hazel eyes and a thin mouth. Aki wondered how she had ended up here. She washed her face and groomed her wounds, and gave Aki new pieces of clothes and a pair of shoes. 

"Do you have anywhere to go?" Sister Elly demanded her. 

Aki shook her head. She was very glad that the sister asked, finding an excuse to stay here was another thing she could strike off of her list. 

"You're going to stay here, I can't let you out in that state...stay here as much as you like. We're all family. You'll be safe with us." 

Aki hugged Sister Elly, and didn't use her voice until a couple of days. For now, her mission was complete. 

 

[*] 

 

'HELLO,' 

Haru blinked. It was the first time something of the sort happened to him – and he had hacked countless and countless of cores before that day, and none had resisted him, and none had acted like Alpha 08. 

There were only those five letters and nothing else. There was no hidden script, no virus, no omega site, nothing he could scratch to even begin to decode the core. There was actually nothing to decode! 

"Saba, can you help me?"  he asked out of despair. 

_'Negative; I have never encounter something of the sort before.'_  

"Can you make a quick research?" 

There were very few people as good as him, and Haru didn't know any who he'd consider better. There was no one he could ask for help for now. Obviously the conventional hacking methods were ineffective on Alpha 08's core but it was an unique cyborg, and so its core must be just as unique as it was. He needed to think out of the box, to understand how a cyborg worked before trying to violate its most intimate parts. 

_'No result for our research.'_ Saba said. 

Who else could know, better than the young scientist? 

Haru searched for the blonde's lab but got lost again. He tried to use the map on his e-watch but Nagisa's lab was no were to be seen. Defeated, he returned to his feet and sent a message instead. 

A couple of minutes later the young scientist was there, and looked as perplexed as Haru was. 

"Hm...this is very interesting...what do you think about it?" Nagisa asked. 

"I don't understand it. It doesn't act like a core I'm trying to hack." 

"How should it act then?" 

"Well, usually the more important the information you want to keep secret is, the more security you use." Haru explained, Nagisa was frowning as if he was thinking very hard, "The best way is to install a virus so that the system can hack anyone who's trying to hack it. But there is nothing, the core is not trying to defend himself at all. In fact, I can't find any information. It's like there is nothing to hack." 

Nagisa touched the screen where the letter 'H' was. "Knowing my uncle it means we're close to the information we seek. He was a real genius but his mind wasn't build like us, honestly. He was crazy, but in the good way. He built these cyborgs, he designed their shape and functions, he designed their cores...There might be something in his lab about it. I'll read his journal, maybe I'll find some clue." 

"We should ask Major as well." Haru proposed. 

"You can try, but I'm honestly not sure she would want to speak about him with you." Nagisa replied harshly. 

That's right, from the very beginning Haru got the feeling Nagisa and his aunt in law weren't in excellent terms. 

Haru tried different tactics while Nagisa kept him company. None of his old tricks worked, but it didn't surprise him that much. Alpha 08's core was different from anything he had seen so far and he needed to think differently. 

Just as he was about to test a new approach, the five letters disappeared and left their place to a blurry video. Nagisa and Haru watched, in awe, the image of a young girl no older than two or three year old, with a low ponytail, a plush in her hand hanging down to the floor, following an adult in what seemed to be her house. There was no sound but it seemed someone was talking to the girl, because she turned around and lifted her arms, dropping the small dinosaur in the process. The video stopped there, and restarted a few seconds later. 

"...What have you done?" Nagisa nearly shouted. 

"No idea." 

The video was looping, Haru kept watching, mesmerized, trying to find a tiny detail that could lead him somewhere. Who was this little girl? Why was it part of Alpha 08's core? 

A loud bang teared him out of his strange. Nagisa had fallen to the ground. Haru knelt next to him and shook his shoulder but the scientist didn't respond. There was a red light tickling at the base of his neck. Panic ran through his body: Nagisa was out of battery. 

"Major! I need assistance right now!" He shouted through his e-watch. 

_"Calm down pretty face, tell me what's happening?"_  

Major had never thrown away a cigarette so quickly. She was there before Haru could sit Nagisa's form on his chair. 

"We have no time for that. He needs to get to his lab. Hold him and follow me!" She ordered. 

They ran, ignoring the other members' questioning gazes, and soon Haru saw the massive green door leading to section 6. Major put both of her hands and her face against the door, and it quickly let them pass. They followed the yellow path on the floor – which was for the occasion quite handy – and finally reached Nagisa's lab where his chair was waiting for him, plugged in to the general electric support. 

Major turned on the lights, "Put him in the chair and connect the wires to the back of his neck." Haru did as he was told, his eyes fixed on the red light on Nagisa's neck, slowly fading away. 

"Is he going to be alright?" 

Major had a lamp in her hand and checked her nephew's pupils. "No damage to the brain." She breathed. "Good. Nagisa has a rescue battery that only works for his heart. Even with that, if he stops breathing his brain won't have enough oxygen to function." 

From the tone of her voice and her breathlessness Haru understood that the situation had been more than though. Nagisa almost died because he asked for help. He didn't really know if he was ready to confess this detail to Major or not. 

"Hey, Nagisa," Haru shook his arm, "Can you hear me?" 

"He's on hibernation mode for the moment, he can't hear you." Major told him. She was looking at the mess on her nephew's desk, her hands on her hips. "He's like his uncle," she pestered, and started to clean up the desk before leaving. 

"Major, there's a few things I'd like to ask if you have time," Haru waited for a reply, and went on when he heard her hummed, "It's about Alpha 08. Its core is very unique and we thought that maybe understanding the way of thinking of its maker could help us...Major?" 

She was obviously not listening to him. In her hands there was a white piece of paper but from the centre of the room, Haru couldn't distinguish what it was – plans, maybe. Major was looking at it with an unreadable expression on her face, a mix of fear and concern, and of bemusement. She folded the page into four and hid it inside her vest. 

"Yes, what were you saying already?" She asked Haru. 

Haru had forgotten as well what he wanted to say in first place. 

When he came back to his office – it felt so weird to own one – the five letters were back on his screen. 

'HELLO' 

Haru stared into the word burned his retina, then decided it was time to go home. 

It felt so terrifying to realize he owned one, or at least, that he wanted to call the place he shared with Rin his home. 

 

[*] 

 

Haru checked the training room before heading to Rin's place in case he'd be there running. He didn't see him either when he entered his apartment. 

"Hello Master Haru!" Sakura greeted him. 

"Just call me Haru." 

Sakura was humming a tune that was playing on its radio, and Haru recognized Ella Fitzgerald's voice easily - Rin must have lifted punishment. The AI was tidying up the kitchen and put the groceries in the fridge. 

"So, how was your day...Daisy?" Haru asked. 

The bag it was holding fell on the ground, potatoes and tomatoes smashed on the tiled floor. Sakura turned around very slowly as if it was frightened to death. "H-h-h-h-ho-ho-ho-how di-di-di-d you-" 

"Sakura, you're the only nice thing which could have done this to the twins. Thank you," Haru said, and while Sakura sighed in relief, he couldn't help but wonder who, in the end, paid for it. 

"Did you, by any mean, keep my bank account details?" 

Sakura seemed to understand where this was going, "Oh no! Be reassured. I delete all your data as you have asked the first day you came in. I bought the meat myself." 

"Why do you mean by that?" Haru asked. 

"It's my money." 

"You mean Rin's money." 

"No, my money," Sakura rectified. "A long time ago I wanted to thank Rin for saving me I bought him presents – the 180° screen in his bedroom, that's my idea! - but he ended up being mad because of the hole it left on his bank account...so he came up with a system. Each time I buy groceries on sales the difference goes on a separate account that I can use whenever I want to. That's where my money comes from!" 

That explained at least why Sakura was so obsessed with sales and saving money. 

It's only under the shower a couple of minutes later that realization struck him: Rin gave his AI pocket money. That was insane. Haru was living in a world where cyborgs and robots behaved more humanly than most humans. 

When Haru came back to the living room Rin was still nowhere to be seen, but a box of sushi was waiting for him on the small garden table.  "Master Rin is on the balcony." Sakura informed him. 

Since when did he have a balcony? 

"It's next to Master Rin's bedroom, if you want to join him." 

Haru walked through the corridor leaving the living room to the rest of the apartment. On his right there was the bathroom a little further his room, Rin's room was just in front of him and when he got in, he saw on his left the door leading to Rin's office where his personal computer was. The room was big and the 180° screens immediately caught the eyes, which explained why Haru had missed the French windows on the very right of the room next to a large desk. Wind blew inside and made the curtains flew. Haru stepped across the entrance. In front of a breath-taking view of Tokyo's roofs Rin seemed lost in his thought with a full glass of red wine in his hand, he was making it spin so that some of the red liquid had fallen on the ground and on his fingers. He didn't notice Haru was there until he hugged him from behind. 

Haru kissed his cheek. "You looked depressed, like a tortured Romantic artist." 

"How do you know I'm romantic? I don't think I had the opportunity to show that aspect of my personality yet." 

"I was talking about the artistic aspect. Plus, you cooked my favourite meal the day you thought I was going to leave, that's quite romantic to me." 

"Then you've never been with a romantic person before." Rin put his glass on the table next to them, and turned his head to kiss Haru's cheek back. "Since when are we doing all those lovey-dovey stuff like kissing gently when you get home?" 

"Since maybe forty seconds. Does it bother you? I thought you were romantic." Haru mocked him. 

"That's not it. It's just kind of unexpected. I need time to adapt. Give me another forty seconds." 

Haru smiled fondly and kissed him on the lips, "No," he said, and he leaned to kiss Rin's adorable pout again. 

 

They ate sushi that night. There was something in the air – or maybe it was the ginger – that made Rin's movements extremely appealing, especially when he put sushi into his mouth, and licked the remaining of soja sauce before it fell on his lips. Haru found out he wasn't that hungry that night, at least, not for sushi. 

"Come with me." 

Rin took Haru's hand and guided him to the living room where Sakura was watching a teen movie. "Lights out!" Rin said, and despite the AI protests – it wanted at least to finish the movie – Sakura's head disappeared into the ceiling and left the place in the dark. Rin turned a small lamp on and dropped Haru's hand to walk to one of his cupboard. He opened the first drawer, there was a gramophone with a golden horn and old records. Rin picked up a 78 rpm. Haru immediately recognized the song. 

"In fact it wasn't Sakura which was fond of the tune, it was you!" 

"I plaid guilty," Rin confessed, "I love old songs from the 20th century." 

He offered his hand again, and Haru took it despite his loathe for any kind of dancing activities. 

"Come on, don't be so tensed. _'Gra_ _b_ _you coat and get your hat, leave your worries on the doorstep._ " Rin sang. He directed Haru and they both manage what could be called a waltz. _"Just direct your feet on the sunny side of the street."_  

Haru spin, leaded by Rin's arm, and leaned his back on Rin's torso with their arms crossed in front of his chest. "You're not that bad," Rin told him. 

That was a lie, but he didn't care. It was a warm lie, a lover's lie. 

Haru had always hated dancing but Rin made everything bearable. 

They danced until the song ended, and then remained in each others' embraces. Haru didn't feel like talking or moving for the moment, he was just enjoying Rin's warmth and his arms on the small of his back. 

"That was your first time dancing with someone right?" Rin asked him. 

Haru nodded, his chin was resting on Rin's shoulder. 

"Tell me, are you the kind of guy who only date jerks? Because I'm started to get worried for my sake you know." 

"I don't usually date people," Haru replied, "The only persons I've been with were just for a couple of nights, I don't really like the idea of settling with anyone." 

He felt Rin laugh against him. "How long have you been there? A couple of weeks now." 

"Yeah, and?" 

"Do you listen to yourself Nanase Haruka?" Haru torn his face from Rin's shoulder to properly look at his face. "You're the one saying you don't want to settle anywhere and yet here you are _squatting_ my place at the moment." 

"That's only because it's you." 

The words had flowed so easily that for a moment Haru didn't understand why Rin was blushing so furiously – his face was almost indivisible from his hair. Embarrassment hit Haru way later and he felt the urge to hide far away from here, from Rin, from this place and of course the only thing he could think of doing was to hide his face in the crook of Rin's neck and hold him even tighter against his chest. 

That was probably the dumbest thing he had done all day. 

He really wanted to disappear from Rin's sight. 

"What did you say?" Rin said out of the blue.  

It seemed Haru's thoughts had passed his lips and reached Rin's ears. That was too much to bear. Haru hauled out of Rin's embrace and directed his feet to his room, but Rin's hand forbade him to, holding on his wrist with force, but without hurting him. 

"Haru." 

In keeping with his actions Rin's voice conveyed his strong  will for Haru to stay but also reflected the touch of gentleness Haru truly needed. His fingers brushed the inside of Haru’s wrist and it was all it took for Haru to succumb. Rin brought him close to his chest again, his hand left Haru’s to end on his face. 

"You told me you weren’t going anywhere, remember?" 

He acted all cocky and proud but Rin's hands were unsure of their hold for the first time in what, days? Ages? Just like the night before, Rin was still scared that Haru might leave the following day without warning. They were both dealing with their own insecurities about the other, Haru realized, and decided it wasn't the time for this. Time was at enjoying this moment like there wouldn't be another, like he could die the next day or forget about Rin in a week, and he wanted to feel as much as he could Rin's hands on him, and his breath on his skin. 

Secured against Rin’s hand Haru leaned on the touch without breaking eye contact, and waited for a kiss. Rin’s lips were gentle against his own, caressing their tips at first while his hands were scratching his skull, giving Haru’s goosebumps. Soft kisses became deep and wet, curious hands travelled on the others sides, soon the lovers had their cheeks coloured with a shade of red and aching jaws. Breathless, Rin broke the kiss first.         

He was about to ask something stupid, something like the permission to go any further and so Haru shut him up with another forceful kiss, held his shirt with shaking hands, pushed them towards Rin's bedroom and then towards his bed. 

They clumsily fell on the sheets. Haru left lips to nuzzle Rin’s neck and dropped light kisses on his way down, but very quickly Rin pinned him on the bed, straddled his hips and worked on removing both of their shirts. Haru almost missed the ruffle of the cloth behind the sound of his heart beat bumping into his head and the way Rin breathed - he was breathless already, but more because of excitement than any kind of fatigue or lack of air. He had been waiting for this, perhaps just as much as Haru, and that fact alone is enough for butterflies to visit Haru's stomach again. It had been so long. 

With his hands on his flesh Rin kissed Haru again and bit the inside of his mouth. With the moan he elected from Haru's mouth his tongue entered, and licked on the swore part of the lips that had just been assault. It had become a sensitive spot but it definitely didn't hurt. 

Rin drew a trait of saliva from the corner of Haru's mouth to his right ear where he licked on the earlobe before taking it into his mouth. He didn't try too much, just what he needed to see if Haru responded and he did, and so Rin left this portion of skin to test another. While Haru did nothing but felt how Rin acted, tried, touched him, touched his body as if it was the first time, and wanted to know it all by heart already. 

The experience brought Haru closed to bliss, but it was not without small hitch. 

"That hurts!" Haru muttered when Rin bit one of his nipples with a little bit too much enthusiasm. 

"Sorry," he said, and to show he really meant it his mouth was back on Haru's ear lobe before he had time to blink. 

The consolation was maybe too much, at Rin's image, more than Haru could handle after days and weeks of yearning for Rin to touch him and it made him ache in more than one ways, but the more pressing matter at this moment set in the tightness of his jean. 

"Rin," he still whispered as if there was someone they could wake up, "Rin takes them off." 

Rin licked on his neck before replying, "Your pants?" 

"Everything." 

It's with a sigh of relief that Rin liberated him from his pressing need, and saw that his efforts were rewarded. Haru was already licking and hard and very ashamed to be when they had barely started anything. Nothing get better when Rin decided that, as Haru's cock was now at hand reach and asking so much to be touched, it was appropriate to stroke it without warning. Even if it felt more like a caress than a firm hold, Haru was so much on edge that he hit his limits way too soon. If it wasn't enough Rin stubbornly refused to leave his ear alone. 

"Rin!"  

His voice came like a mix between a reproach and a strangled moan, Haru could feel him smile against his cheek. That was just not fair. 

"Stop touching me like that." 

"Or what?" Rin sought in his ears, "Tell me. How am I touching you?" 

Like everything he did, his touch, his sent, his gaze, it always felt too much at first. Rin had fire running in his veins and burnt everything he touched or gazed at, leaving a mark behind his steps. His touch became addictive; his gaze, awaited. He was the exact opposite of Haru and yet he could only yield to this fire and embrace it. 

"Shit," Haru muttered between in teeth. 

Rin's mouth left his ear suddenly, alarmed. "What?" 

Haru couldn't look at him, this was just too embarrassing. "I'm close." 

"Oh," Rin sounded just as embarrassed,  "Like, close _close_ , or could you last-" 

"Close _close_." 

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Rin whined. 

"I tried!" 

"Okay, okay, don't be mad at me because you're a premature-" 

Haru hit him with a pillow. "I am not!" 

He got a kiss for an apology, and Rin's hand quickly came back on his length. A couple of vivid strokes were enough to reach his climax, and as he came his groan was muffled by Rin's mouth. Breathless, he rested his head on Rin's shoulder and closed his eyes; but Rin decided they had no time to waist and kept dropping soft kissed on his moist skin. They lie on the bed. 

Long strands of red hair fell on Rin's face, Haru brushed them behind his ear before they kissed again. As he licked and sucked on Rin's lips his hands travelled down his spine and brushed the tip on his fingernails on Rin's most sensible spot he remembered, and Haru was glad to see they hadn't changed. Rin let out a long breath against his cheek. 

Then, Haru began to wander down and soon his hands were inside Rin's boxers. They were soon forgotten on the bedroom's floor, and Rin's intimacy was then hidden from the world by Haru's mouth. His pride was shaken when he found out Rin wasn't fully hard the moment he took him in his mouth. From this moment Haru realized that Rin's feelings or his vision of their relationship were nowhere near his own, and it was only logical that he was less eager to make love with him than Haru was. He could have tortured his mind about the matter for the whole night and more but Rin's moans brought him back to where he should be, on earth with Rin, in between his legs. 

Rin was stroking his face and his hair and breathing more and more quickly. Haru had taken a good half of Rin's cock inside his mouth and was rather happy with himself. There was another thing that hadn't changed over the lives with Rin. He had been rather gifted by mother nature and Haru was sure men would die to be just as gifted. His tongue swirled on Rin's head and Haru tasted the precum getting out of there; he knew then it was enough for now, enough for Rin, and that now it was time. Rin got the signal alright, and after a quick touch on the lips his fingers grasped Haru's ass firmly, before one of his finger reached his entrance. 

Rin halted, "Is it okay?" He asked, "I mean are you ready?" 

Haru nodded, and hid his smile. 

There was no more hesitation from then. As one, two and in the end three fingers thrust into him Haru hold onto Rin strongly to the point of hurting his joins. In the end last time – the first time – had just been a quickie, a drunken quickie between two strangers who randomly met in a cruddy bar in the middle of the night. Now everything was different. Rin was everything but a stranger to him, they were entirely sober and Rin's touches were tender, soft and caring. 

And it was _Rin_. 

Rin was making love to him after all this time, and even in his bones he could feel happiness filled every single of his cells. Anticipation made time moved slower. Haru closed his eyes ad breathed in and out slowly to savour every parcel of Rin's skin and his fingers moving inside him. 

"It's good now," he told him softly, "You can take them off." 

Even in the obscurity of the night Haru could make out Rin's features and how the red of his cheeks had grown, and Rin would have witness the same if only he had been able to look at Haru's face. Instead he lied him down again and took one of his leg on his shoulder. 

"I'm getting in," he murmured, Haru closed his eyes, forcing his mouth shut not to shout. He needed Rin here, almost too desperately. 

To his surprise Rin was extremely careful and gentle. It was not that usually Rin wasn't – of course he was always gentle – but part of Haru yearned for something more, not brutal but intense, he thought maybe this Rin would used more force in his thrust and make him go crazy in an instant. But it went all subtle. Rin loved him slowly at first but lost his temper and patience over time. His hips met Haru's faster and harder until their moans filled the room. Haru's leg tensed on Rin's shoulder and he jerked his hips, lifted them to find a better angle. Rin kissed the inside of his knee and bit him there, gently. His hair were stuck on his face thanks to the sweat, his face was all red and his mouth wide opened. He was simply breathtaking. 

And his cock was just perfectly filling him from top to bottom. Each time it entered him Haru felt his inside being torn apart but when it hit his sweet spot all the pain was shut down and replaced by something warm, by Rin's fire, spreading through his body. The blaze inside him reached his climax helped with Rin's touch on his cock, Rin collapsed on top of him and hold his hand. No words were spoken as they caught their breathes. 

Haru's gaze rested on the red blinking dot on the wall. He spoke, after a while. 

"Are you sure she can't see us?" 

Rin laughed, and pinched his side. "See?" 

"What?" Haru frowned. 

"You called it 'She'." 

Haru bit his lips.

  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been soooo long !  
> Like I've said I've kind of...lost me beta again in the depth of college...the chapter had been proofreaded and edited by and and choko so send her kudos and cookies and punk russian's goodies okay.  
> What I meant by thta it's that it's not beta like the previous one.
> 
> As you have seen chapters are now numbered, it's only a prediction, I've planned them until chapter 19 for now...
> 
> I've also added some information on my blog under the #moksha tag, you can at last look for some information about Major and...the Sharkbite cocktail :)
> 
> See you around! (next month maybe...)


	9. H-A-C-K-S

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The winds is turning. The honeymoon is over.  
> Something terrible is lurking in the corner but it's too small for anyone to notice yet.  
> Unless someone does?
> 
> Rin is being paranoid - Haru discovers new fantastic abilities - what is Kisumi doing here???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MOKSHA IS ONE YEAR OLD HAPPY BIRHTHDAY MOKSHA

Glossary :

 

**The Jannins :** a religious order born after the end of the world war third which is getting more and more popularity and attention. Have lots of small monasteries in the post poor parts of Tokyo. Believe in reincarnation. 

* * *

 

 

#  Chapter 9 : H-A-C-K-S

 

It was a dreamless night Haru spent in Rin's arm. He woke up way before the sun was up around 3 am and couldn't find the will to leave such warm and comfortable sheets. They weren't made of silk but Rin did have a high standard for his bedding. On the desk next to his side of the bed Haru made a discovering. Hidden under a pile of magazine there was a notebook and charcoal, a rubber and a pen, even some gouache and different style of paintbrushes. He remembered the promise he made the first time they met. Considering how drunk they were it was a miracle Rin remembered it too and even more amazing that he actually took the time to buy the tools Haru needed to paint. 

Haru sat on the stool and immediately regretted his decision. His back was sore from last night and he could feel Rin's fluid dripped out of his hole - bad idea, definitely. Lazy, he put his boxer back and started drawing Rin while standing next to the desk. 

Rin's back was enlightened by the moonlight; he was soundlessly sleeping on his stomach with his arms hugging the pillow were his head rested. Haru came closer to lower the slid sheet and stopped at the birth of Rin's bottoms. A shiver ran down his spine when he thought Rin had felt him, but it was just a false alarm. He saw Rin's muscle tensed for a second, revealing just how well build he was. How on earth had he earn the right to stare at such a sight? 

Haru draw frenetically for minutes without stopping. It took him a while to realize the red dot on the ceiling wasn't blinking anymore. Sakura was awake, and when he turned his head, Haru glanced directly to its head. 

"It's not what you think," he breathed, trying to cover his self with his pillow. 

"It looks pretty amazing, you have great talent Master Haru." 

Haru didn't waste any breath to remind the AI to simply call him Haru in fear of waking Rin up but it was too late. Rin stirred and rolled on his back, stretched and Haru just had time to hid the notebook away before he opened his eyes. 

Rin patted the empty space beside him. "Hey you, come here." Haru rushed to Rin's side. "What were you doing out there?" 

"Watching you," Haru replied. He took Rin's hand into his and kissed its palm. "You were drooling on your pillow, it was very funny." 

"You really don't know how to lie to me." 

"I do not tell lies, you really looked ridiculous." 

Haru crawled on top of Rin and kissed him gently. Loving Rin sometimes made him say stupid things. It made him stupid. Of course it was impossible to lie in front of such beauty. Haru lost his self for a second in the depth of Rin's gaze as they were staring at each other while fondling his cheeks. 

Rin pinched the top of his nose. "What's that for?" Haru scowled. 

"Stop that." 

"Stop what?" 

"Looking at me like that." Rin said. 

He stopped Haru's hand on his cheek and brought it back to Haru's cheek. "Your eyes, they are really mesmerizing you know?. It's the first thing I noticed about you. You looked like a hobo when you entered the bar. Your shoulders were sloping, your movements were dull, but your eyes were an entire other story. There was life in them, they were sharp and shining." Rin ran his thumb under Haru's bottom lids. "My father used to say the eyes were the door to people's soul. You wear your soul too close to your eyes, Haru." 

"Are you concerned about me?" Haru sounded on the defensive, he didn't like where Rin's words were leading them. 

"They scare me. The way you look at me sometimes, it's scary." Rin confessed. "I feel like you could swallow me whole if only you could." 

"I-" 

"There are a lot of things your eyes tell me that your mouth doesn't. Things I'm not quite ready for at the moment. Things about how much you like me when we've known each other for so little time." He went on.  

"You're too full of yourself." Haru got out of the bed, stung by Rin's words. "Don't imagine the stuff you want to see in my eyes." 

"Hey," Rin followed him, naked, to the kitchen. "I didn't say I wanted to see them, that’s the exact opposite. Were you even listening?" 

"I dropped when you talked about souls and eyes." 

"Jeez, Haru..." He pinched the birth of his nose. The strong smell of fresh coffee made him open his eyes. Haru had made two expressos. "Thanks. But it won't be enough to end our conversation." 

"I'm not head over heels in love with you. There, are you happy?" 

Rin sighed, "Okay, fine, I guess." 

"Are you always that romantic in the morning?" 

The bathroom door slammed behind his back. 

 

 

[*] 

 

 

Haru walked in the VTI training room before Natsuya. What could be better than swimming to evacuate the frustration? Haru imagined an endless line and swam for what seemed like hours, and when he got tired of the pool the water got warmer and yellow fishes surrounded him. His head only got out of the water when he tasted salt on his lips. He was too angry after Rin to risk falling onto him getting out of the adjacent line again. 

A diver joined him, contemplating the fishes. Haru recognized Natsuya's hazel eyes behind his mask. They swam until they reached a small island. 

"You got there early. Got me by surprised." 

He took off his mask and sat on the beach, and Haru joined him to catch his breath. 

"It's a nice view you're giving us," Natsuya commented. "I wonder if you could make another couple of islands this way." 

Haru frowned. "What do you mean by that?" 

"You're the one with the helmet so you're the one in control. We're basically in your head, and considering how old you are I'm sure you could model amazing sceneries." 

"How I am supposed to make an island appear out of nowhere?" 

"Not how of nowhere," Natsuya pointed his head, "Out of your mind. You just have to imagine it. It's actually not that complicated." 

In front of Haru's perplexity, Natsuya patiently revealed a little more about the VTI mysterious mechanism. 

"Look, you wanted to swim, right? And where were you when you put the helmet on?" 

"In a swimming pool," Haru answered. 

"And where did it come from if not from your head?" 

"I have already seen it before," Haru replied, "It was already in my memory. Making an island appear...creating it...it's something else." 

"Have you tried?" Natsuya asked. 

Haru shook his head. He took off the VTI's helmet and they were back in the white training room. 

"Too tiresome." He said. "Natsuya, can we go back to the shooting room?" 

 

Haru emptied at least a dozen of magazines. The paper targets came back, with bullet holes always rightfully placed. A certain death awaited his future opponent. 

Leaned against the wall, Natsuya closely observed him, "You're tense." He said, Haru didn't deign to reply to this obviousness, "Is the upcoming test bothering you that much?"  

Haru merely shrugged. "What could be worse than a lion running after me?" 

"A lion running after you under Major's orders, probably," Natsuya joked – he was the only who laughing about it though. The instructor sighed " Listen Haru...I don't think you should worry too much. We all knew from the very beginning that you wouldn't be a excellent soldier on the field but you have other talents. We're trying to concentrate on those but first and for all, you have to be in shape so that you wouldn't put yourself or other Sharks in danger during a mission." 

Blue eyes felt on the black holey target. Haru tore it from it's suspension, and threw it at Natsuya's face. 

"Isn't that enough for you Sharks?" 

He nearly didn't manage to dodge Natsuya's fist aiming his face. Haru took his attacker's forearm and with the flat of his right hand tried to hit Natsuya's neck. He didn't anticipated his instructor's moves; Natsuya kicked his legs just behind his knee and Haru fell on the ground. Natsuya crunched his stomach and face on the ground, turned it to the side so that Haru could see him. 

"What did you say?" 

There was nothing left to say. 

Someone behind their back applauded the show. 

"Well, well done, Natsuya. Now you've damaged pretty face, I'll have to think of another surname for him." 

"How about you call me by my real name?" 

Major gave him a smile – which meant she wouldn't – and turned to Natsuya as soon as his feet hit the floor again. "Did I tell you about the clownfish I bought?" 

"In the small or big aquarium?" 

"The big one," Haru watched them talking bemused. Were they really having a nice chat about a fish? "I'd like you to check on it." 

"But I-" 

"I found someone to take care of your own pet if it's what's bothering you." Major cut him.  

They were obviously using a code in which, to his great surprise, Haru had gone from 'pretty face' to 'pet'. It foretold a lot about the week Haru would have to go through – and at the end of it, the final test, the sesame that would finally open him to door of the Shark's base and knowledge. 

 

The three of them got back to HQ. While waiting for his new instructor since Natsuya was most likely going on a mission for an uncertain amount of time, Haru wondered who Major's clownfish could refer to, and why did Natsuya mention two size of aquarium. The big aquarium might refer to the real deal, something to do with Moksha or the Alpha 08...but what about the smaller one? 

Only Nagisa came to his mind. But even coming from Major it sounded harsh to talk about her nephew in these terms. 

"Haru." 

A calm voice called him, he hadn't realized he had dozed off. 

"She has a heart, you know." 

It was the man Haru saw on his first day here, bleeding and unconscious on Natsuya's shoulder. He was on a wheelchair with his elbow resting on his thighs. His eyes, barely visible under his bangs, were deep and thoughtful, reading inside Haru's mind in an intrusive way – wait, what was he doing? He was...forcing his way inside his mind! 

Suddenly the man blinked and held his head. "Oh, I was naïve to think you wouldn't notice." 

"How couldn't I when your presence is so oppressive?" Haru replied. 

"It's not given to anyone," the man said. "For example, Major really wants us to finish quickly so she can have her little cigarette and her small glasses of prune in her office which she thinks she is the only one who knows where it is – and from what I see those glasses you drink are everything but small Major-" 

"Stop it Nao." Major ordered. "I thought you've stopped doing this to me." 

"Ah, I do. It was just to show Haru." 

 

Nao Serizawa would be his next mentor for the remaining days. 

"Natsuya had to go on a more important mission I'm afraid, that's what Major told me. But to be honest you are more important than anything happening right now." Nao said as they were heading to the training room again – Haru wondered what kind of things they would do considering his new instructor's health. "The only reason she let him go is because she thinks you are ready." 

"Did she tell you or did you read it in her head?" Haru asked him. 

"None of them, it's just a simple guessing. You'll see with experience that we, Omnis, are good at understanding people." 

Haru halted his steps. 

"Oh," Nao turned his wheels, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you had no idea. I thought Marine told you or that you would have figured out on your own." 

The news of not being a normal human being had been too much to think he could on top of everything be part of the most power group of Jivas. "I thought I was just a sensor, or something similar." 

"You have already figured out that not all Jivas are equals, that must be a remaining of your old lives." Nao said. He reached him and waited to make eye contact. "We have a lot more responsibilities than the others. We are the ones who remember the most. We have the Universal knowledge, it's our duty to make sure the samsara remains unviolated." 

Haru left a chuckle escaped his lips. "How come my memory is so bad then?" 

"I don't know." Nao answered. "Marine doesn't either and honestly if she doesn't no one will find out, no one except you maybe, when you'll find the missing pieces." 

They reached the training room quicker than Haru had expected. Nao had so many things to teach him about the Jivas, and about what Haru was – an Omni. He had never thought he would be gifted with such a grace. 

"I don't like to say it that way because it sounds pompous but there are not a lot of Omnis per generations. We must be a dozen or even less in Japan; we're like chosen ones. I really hate that term though." 

Haru was about to open the door for Nao but for some reason, the door decided to open on its own. 

Nao passed him without stopping. 

"Of course it's because we are gifted with certain abilities that there are so few of us. Imagine if all the Jivas could use telepathy and move object as they please. It would anarchy." 

"Can I do that?" Haru asked. "I mean no I can't do that." 

"Of course you can," Nao got of his feet and made a few steps. He sat on the VTI seat and took the helmet in his hands. "You can do a lot of things Haru, and I'm sure you used to do a lot before you forgot what you were. Did you think you could hold a gun or swim like a dolphin before you came here?" 

Haru didn't answer. Of course he couldn't. And yet... 

"Natsuya showed you all the things you could do, all the things you have mastered in your previous lives; he showed you you still knew everything, it was just hidden in a corner of your mind you hadn't looked in before. Let me do the same with your Omni's abilities." 

"But I have no idea of what I'm supposed to do." 

At least before he came here Haru knew what archery and swimming looked like, he had seen it on screen. But, reading minds, telekinesis? It was like magic! He couldn't improvise being a magician, could he?

"If it's just that, I will gladly show you what an Omni is capable of Haruka," Nao told him as he put the helmet on his head and handed the second pair to him. "But in exchange, once you've recovered your memory I want you to show me what an experimented Omni such as you can do." 

The next moment the two Jivas were falling into the void. Haru was the only one screaming. 

 

 

[*] 

 

 

On the other side of the Shark's base Natsura was getting ready for his next mission, the red Shark already on his back. He was hiding the last knifes under his leather outfit, and a regular gun under his belt. Natsuya was good at hand to hand combat but he must be ready for any kind of trouble. After all they didn't know exactly what their enemies were made of. If Major's suspicions were right about the Jannin then they might be cyborgs guarding their leaders; and if Marine was right...there might also be Jivas. How much exactly, they didn't know yet, but it would explain how Nao could have got shot so easily when he was a master at mindreading. Only a Jiva could close his mind to another Jiva. 

Major was waiting, leaning against the door frame with her arms crossed in front of her chest with a false cool attitude. "These are the plans Nao drew during his convalescence. As you can see there are a lot of holes we need to fill before we can consider an operation." 

"How is Aki doing there?" 

"No idea, we won't know if she's alive until the signal. And when it comes we will need to be ready. Why are you laughing?" 

Natsuya was not - he was merely smiling very fondly because just now, Nao talked to him via his telepathic abilities. "Nothing. He just told me Haru screamed but not as much as I did." 

"He doesn't look like it but Nao has some great sense of humour." Major commented. 

"Speaking of people who doesn't look what they are, you shouldn't worry about Aki." 

Majoro immediately closed her face. "I'm not." 

"She's strong. She didn't capture Alpha 08 by a strike of luck. She can defend herself well enough and you know that. Just because you can't be there for her doesn't mean she will fail. It's cute you know. It's really nice, actually." 

Major had put a frown on her face, "What are you talking about?" 

"Nothing. Nothing, just. You're just as human as we all are and it's really nice to know." 

Her frown deepened. "Why wouldn't I?" She exclaimed. 

Sometimes Major was difficult to read. When it concerned Aki she was an open book. 

They parted in front of Door B. His mission was simple. Draw a map of the Jannin's sanctuary in the 2nd district and of their hidden passages and check on Aki. It sounded like a piece of cake. 

 

Major's mission on the other end was closed to closure as well. The rules were strict concerning Moksha's security. The Sharks had been guarding it for almost 150 years and they wouldn't fail under her watch. It was always when a guardian died or had to leave his affectation that Moksha's localisation was easier to find. 

_"The_ _bramahans_ _have_ _the power to reduce Moksha's radiance. Its power is so powerful that without us, our enemies would find out exactly where it is hiding within a couple of minutes. Since your base is build in the basement its walls are thick enough to protect you from the nuclear radiation; it should be enough to dull_ _Moksha's aura from the rest of the world while_ _we're_ _pro_ _ceeding_ _the exchange."_  

The last time Major had to deal with a Ryugazaki's monk she thought he would never come out of her base on his own two feet. They were so pompous and their know-it-all attitude irked in her skin and made her trigger itched. His oldest son was in charge of guarding Moksha at the moment and his youngest was about to take his stand in a couple of weeks when the hideout would be operational. There was this place out of town, an old supermarket abandoned since the beginning of the war. Most of its façade was destroyed but its core was just the right size, and since it was localized in an industrial area there was not a single soul nearby. They could come and go without being notice. It was almost perfect. 

Major lit a cigarette and sat back on her seat, crossing her legs. She refused to give Nao any credit and so forgot about her glass of strong prune. Truth was, she really needed it. Einstein had been found dead this morning, its bowels ripped out of his body and displayed just in front of her doorstep. How could someone be so cruel? How could someone hate her cat so much?  

She lit another cigarette as soon as she finished the first one. She had other things to care about right now, other than her stupid late husband's cat's murder. 

 

 

[*] 

 

Flabbergasted. 

It was, of course, an amazing word, but it was also Haru's state of mind as soon as Nao took off the VTI helmet.  

Nao was already at the door while Haru couldn't move a muscle. "So?" He said, "What do you think about this?" 

No word came to him. 

The whole vision of the world's limit had been turned upside down. So much he forgot about his little fight with Rin this morning, so much he sat next to him as if nothing had happened at all, so much he talked to him with no restrain and didn't understand Rin's suspicious look on his face. 

"...What?" 

"No'ing." Rin was eating quickly, he looked in a hurry. 

"What's happening? You're rushing. You didn't even wait for me." Haru noticed. 

"Well I thought we wouldn't be eating together today, to be honest." 

Haru frowned, and remembered a bit too late. 

"Oh, I, I can-" 

"No, it's fine. It's better like that." 

"I'm sorry about what I said." Haru apologized. "All of this thing is new to me." 

"It's fine." 

"Then why are you still rushing to finish?" 

Rin drank his glass of water in one go and put it back on the trail abruptly. "I might as well tell you after all. Have you heard of a guy named Shigeno Kisumi?" 

Haru gulped. Sure he had. He was a hacker just like him. 

"...Judging by your face I guess you know him." 

"I thought he was in prison or something like that." Haru remembered hearing some gossip back in the days where he was working from the Underground. 

"Yeah, I put him in."  

Haru almost choked on his meat.  

"He was the one who hacked Sakura." 

Truth was Haru knew Kisumi more than he was willing to admit. They came from the same district and had been hanging around at the same place and cybercafés. When puberty hit him Kisumi realized girls adored hackers and he became one to pick up chicks, and for nothing more than that. Unfortunately for the authorities Kisumi was good at everything he tried, and when hackers were no longer in, he took another career, one of those who never outmoded : criminal. 

Haru hadn't heard of him in a while, and learned only six months ago that he had been caught. 

So it was Rin's doing. It's thanked to Kisumi's arrest that Rin had such a nice position and big office at the CIRO. 

"At first we thought the hacking came from a social justice's hacker who wanted to denounce the government ill practices but it turned out in the end that Shigeno just wanted to do the same as us. He wanted Sakura's core to make profit." 

"Why are you talking about him all of a sudden?" Haru asked him. 

"Because I saw him walking in the CIRO's corridors, once with handcuffs, and then without." Rin was holding on his trail so hard that his chuckles had turned white. "And I'm sure it was on of Sousuke's man leading him out of his office." 

Haru frowned, Rin's story sounded unreal. "But why would Sousuke release a criminal?" 

"I have no idea. That's why I need to get out of here quickly and settle in front of Sousuke's office until he comes out so I can ask him." Rin let out a long sigh, and took his head into his hands. 

"Hey," Haru was about to caress his arm gently to comfort him before he realized he couldn't; they were in a public place after all, and it hurt not to be able to do so. "It's okay. There is certainly a very good reason for that. Maybe Kisumi knows vital information, and trade his delivery-" 

"He was caught for treason and terrorism, what good could his information be so that he could walk as a free man?" 

"Maybe he can help Yamazaki catch a bigger fish." Haru told him. 

His words had no effect on Rin, or if they had, they only made him feel worse. Haru watched closely as Rin's face got darker and worry took the best of his features. Did Rin fear Kisumi would try to get his revenge, after what he had done to him? But Kisumi didn't know how to fight and Rin was build like an athlete, he shouldn't be afraid of such a man. 

"...You're probably right." 

Rin sighed again and got up from his seat. 

"Yeah?" Haru said.

"Yeah, I'm just imagining things again. It's just...don't take it personally but ever since Sousuke hired you to spy on me I'm being paranoid." 

"It was just a way to test me," Haru said on the spot. "It had nothing to do with you." 

Rin chuckled, "Yeah, you sound just like him. But was it, really?" 

"What do you mean by that?" 

"Sousuke, no, _you_ stole something from me that night, remember?" There was so much grudge and anger in his voice Haru could hear, no matter how much Rin tried to hide it, "So don't tell me it was just a test, because if it was Sousuke would have given it back to me, and he didn't, and I think that's why Sousuke asked for that scum's help." 

"You're right, you're being paranoid." Haru said louder. Rin's word hurt him like a scalpel through his skin but the worse was that he was right. Haru stole something from Rin, he betrayed him before they even had the chance to meet, and there was no way he could erase that. 

Unless there was... 

"Maybe, maybe not. I'll find out soon anyway. I can read Sousuke better than he thinks. I'll know if he lies to me. Then I'll have my answer." 

Haru finished his meal alone, which gave him plenty of time to think about the problem at hand. Talking to Yamazaki wouldn't be of any help considering the man, but Kisumi was another story. He had always seen Haru as a 'friend' despite Haru's reluctance, and this could be the perfect opportunity to pay back for what he'd done to Rin. He only needed to find him and talk to him. 

And if Kisumi wouldn't talk, then with the help of Nao's training, in no time his mind would talk for him.  

 

 

[*] 

 

 

The sound of pearls hitting each others announced the arrival of a new customer. 

"Welcome to Tachicoffee!"  

Makoto left the pantry in a hurry. "Oh, it's you." 

Monk Shikishima had been a regular since two months. His monastery had quickly become one of Tachicoffee best client, and if monks and sisters weren't coming some would take dozen of his coffees back to the monastery. 

But Monk Shikishima wasn't there for coffee this time. He handed Makoto a card. 

"The information about the place and date is at the bottom. Will you come alone?" 

"No, I asked a friend, but I'm not sure he will make it though." 

"Good," the monk said, "It's important that our words reach the more people, but remember that the journey to the Truth is one you have to take alone." 

Makoto studied the card's design; in the middle like always there was the purple pyramid with the big eye, staring through his soul, displaying his flaws and fears so easily. Then a few words were written in Kurshtish – the Jannin's religious language – with the translation just below. 

 

_'Initiation rites for new_ _Jannins_ _. Free for everyone. Subscription for the next rite will be open at the end of the ceremony. May we all take the Journey to the Truth.'_  

 

And just above the pyramid were the Jannin's Mantra. 

 

 

 

_'Fear not Sin, for the Mother will absolve you,'_  

_'Fear not P_ _erdition, for the Heart will guide you,'_  

_'Fear not Death, for the Eye sees what Future awaits you.'_  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   
 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Actually the pyramid eye thing is a relicat of my young years watching yu gi oh I think...
> 
> I told you I needed a whole month to write another chapter xD  
> I'll try to be back before the new year but with the Xmas challenge I don't think I'll make it.  
> SO see you next year? I guess? Next year will be full of free! and of rin and haruka being pro I hope !
> 
> (Kisumi is a little bit like mook!Kisumi in this story haha I love him)


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